People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1896 — TRADE IS NO NETTER. [ARTICLE]

TRADE IS NO NETTER.

n>»h| Sfc* PMt VNk. B. O. Dum A Co's Weekly Reviews of Trade saya: "The volume of business baa not on the whole Increased nor have prlcee advanced since April 1, when the range for all commodities was the lowest ever known in this country. Breadstuffs and iron products have risen fclightly, but some other articles have declined, and the root of the matter Is that demand for consumption Is still below expectations. The weather has not favored active distribution of spring goods, and uncertainty as to continued employment affects the purchases by hands in a large number of establishments. “The injury done to winter wheat by storms and frosts at the west would appear from reports of state officers to have been considerable. But the reports are not more gloomy than a yeai ago, and the quantity of wheat which has come from farms since Aug. 1 has been 163,781,594 bushels, against 129,076,460 at the same date last year. “Western receipts for the week are about 60 per cent larger than last year, and for two weeks about 50 per cent, while Atlantic exports, flour Included, have been for the week only 909,055 bushels, against 1,759.006 last year, a decrease of nearly half. These conditions tend to check the advance, which reached 3 cents, but was followed by a reaction of 1 cent. Corn rose 2% cents with wheat and on account of small stocks. Cotton has not changed and known commercial and mill stocks exceed probable consumption until new cotton comes. The billet pool and other combinations have raised prices of pig Iron and steel, but as yet finished products have gained scarcely anything, nor has demand for them Increased. Prices for lake ore are announced, as expected, sl.lO higher than last year, and the coke combination makes no reduction, but gradually lessens output. Minor metals are dull, but lead weaker, at 3.05 cents on forced sales west. Wool is weaker, with sales for the week of only 2,232,600 pounds at the three chief markets, the smallest for many years. Prices were lower, except for fine washed fleece, and manufacaurers are rapidly reducing production. There is fair demand in the dress goods branch, especially due to important steps by customs authorities to stop undervaluations of French and German goods, but it is estimated that not 40 per cent of the men’s wear machinery Is at work. There have also been cotton mills stopping or reducing time this week. Further reductions In ‘shirting prints, to the lowest point ever touched, failed to Increase the demand materially. Failures for the past week have been 209 in the United States, against 207 last year, and thirty-three In Canada, against twenty-seven last year.