Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1885 — GENERAL [ARTICLE]

GENERAL

There were 278 failures in the United States reported during the week, against 305 in the preceding week, and 260, 242, aud 161 in the corresponding weeks of 1883, 1882, and 1881 respectively. About 80 per cent were those of small traders capital was less than $5,000. In the principal trades they were as follows: General stores, 52; grocers, 41; clothing, 27; druggists, 15; hardware and agricultural implements, 13; jewelry, 12; liquors, 13; shoes, 11; manufacturers, IU; millinery, 8; produce and provisions, 7; men’s furnishing goods, 6, books, paper, printing, etc., 6; tobacco and cigars, 5; hotels and restaurants, 5; bakers and confectioners, 5; banks aud bankers, 5; furniture, 5; drugs, 4; harness, 4; lumber and materials,4; carriages, 3; grain, 2; fancy goods, 2; butchers, 2. Among the insolvencies reported are those of Forbes &’ Flick, dry goods merchants of Ottawa, Illinois; Henry B. Levi, a jeweler of Baltimore; John Ewing, a grocer of Xenia, Ohio; and Wangler & Co., cigar manufactures in New York. According to Bradatreet’a, the total number of failures in the United States for the year 1884 shows a large increase in the rate of mercantile mortality. This is made apparent by the following comparative table : .;. , ‘ Percent No. of Aggregate Aggregate assets to Year, failures. assets, liabilities, liabilities 1860 ...-. 4,350 $ 27,430,000 $ 57,120,030 48 1881 .... 6,929 36,964,000 76,094,000 47 1882.. 7.635 47,463,000 93,238,000 61 1883.. 10,299 90,804.000 176.908,000 62 1884 ... .11,600 130,000,000 240,000,000 54 Here is an increase of over 12 per cent, in the total number of failures tor 1884, as against 1883, a probable gain of 44 per cent in assets and of 37 per cent in liabilities. The total number of bank failures tliis year is 121, against 45 last year, or one and three-quarter times as many as in 1883; of which national bank failures have increased from 8 to 11, State banks from 5 to 22, and savings banks from 2 to 11. Of the 121 bank fai’ures reported v for 1884, the number wbich (so far as known) may be ascribed to speculation direct or indirect within them or on the part of those indebted to them is 67, or over one-half. For the nine months ended Sspl 27 the total number of “speculative failures” of banks was 55, of which 22 were of stock-broking “bankers,” 16 were due to frauds or embezzlements based on appropriations of the banks’ funds for the purpose of speculating, and 3 were caused by being large creditors of those who failed owing to unfortunate speculations.