People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1894 — SHOWS GOOD SIGNS. [ARTICLE]

SHOWS GOOD SIGNS.

Bercral Lines of Trade Report a Livelier Feeling. New York, June 12.-41. G. Dun A Co.’s weekly review of trade says: ' . “The outlook for business seems a Little better on the whole, though the improvement is not great. Moreover it is impossible to dls1 tfnguish between mere replacement of orders canceled for want of fuel or other causes and the new business for which works are anxiously looking. It is somewhat encouraging that the decrease in payments through , clearing houses in comparison with 1892 is i about 30 per cent Railroad tonnage is larger than a year ago in live stock and moderate in cereals, but considerably smaller in coal and iron products and in other manufactured goods . west-bound. “With only 2.937 coke ovens working and 14.i 676 idle, with the Cambria discharging half its force, and seven out of nine of the Carnegie furnaces at Bessemer out of blast the production and manufacture of iron and steel are smaller than at any other time for years. While it is believed deferred work will cause heavy production after the strike terminates the demand for products is at present much below general expectations even at the east. Other industries have been less affected, but many of the textile mills even in New England have now been closed for lack of fuel or of orders, besides other concents in great number between the Atlantic and the Mississippi river. ” “The returns of failures are still encouraging. 216 in the United States for the week, against 322 last year, and 40 in Canada against 27 last year. The liabilities in all failures reported in the month of May were $13,305,357, about 85,420,000 at the east. $4,500,000 at the south and $3,400,000 at the west. Of the aggregate $5,165,025 was of manufacturing and $6,633,409 of trading concerns.” Bradstreet’s says: “Nearly all the unfavorable business conditions of the last three weeks continue to exercise an influence. The few exceptions where improvement is noted are of practically local importance. Retail trade at many centers has been interfered with by unfavorable weather and by further restriction of the purchasing power of thousands of wage-earners, by further industrial trouble, or by shrinkage in production. “The see-saw prices tip in the opposite direction this week, most strikingly in cereals, oats having advanced 5%c, wheat 3%c and corn 1 %c. Potatoes are 20c higher a bushel at the west, bar iron and pig iron are up sharply at st. Louis and live stock at Kansas City. Lard is fractionally higher. Conspicuous decreases in prices of staples reported are in leather and wool, due to heavy receipts of new crop. Coffee is off %c. , “At larger eastern centers there is no improvement in general business. New England cotton mills continue to produce in excess of demands. Southern and Rhode island cotton mills are shutting down for want of fuel as well as orders. Philadelphia jobbers in dry goods report a better spot demand and the petroleum market there is more active, but Baltimore jobbers in cloth.ng as well as in some other Lines have not sent out drummers as formerly. “Among southern cities covered Richmond, Shvannah, Jacksonville and Augusta report the more favorable conditions. At the iirst there is a better demand for groceries and provisions, for agricultural implements and ieaf ! tobacco, which is quite active. “There is little far-reaching attending evi- ' dence of improvement reported from the west. At Louisville there is more demand for groceries, and the leaf tobacco market is quite active and business being reported. There is more doing among jobbers in hardware at Chicago, ' although interior merchants tributary to that market have not begun to buy in advance of actual needs, and, on the other hand, the spread of the coal strike is checking business there."