Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1901 — COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

The usual midsummer dullness was decidedly in evidence in the stock market last week. Even the continuation of the steel strike, after it wg.s generally believed that it was to be amicably settled, had but little effect. Big New York financial interests bought up steel securities on all declines, checking possib’e slumps and stiffening the market through the firmness in the support given. Th ■ activity in Shelby Steel Tube and its close relationship to the United States Steel Company leaves no doubt that the proposed union of the two will be mutually advantageous when it is consummated. Heavy rains in the West and Southwest broke the drought in the corn belt and relieved in a large measure the fear of a serious failure in crqps. Money for commercial and manufacturing uses has been firm at 4% to 5 per cent, and the indications are that it will continue so until the exact amount of money necessary for the movement of crops is known. The supply of commercial paper on the market is considerable, but not so large as it has-been of late. Country bankers are buyers of paper in Chicago despite the commencement of the movement of crops. The decrease of about $1,000,000 in the legal reserve of the New York banks, as shown by Saturday's statement, u'us disappointing, as a good-sized increase was looked for. It will have little effect on money rates, however, as the surplus, despite the decrease. is still over $22,000,000, and there has been a big slackening up of the money demand for speculative purposes. General trade conditions have been good. If a settlement of the steel strike and the reopening of the mills and plants now idle could have been secured the conditions would have remained good and there would have been even greater commercial activity throughout the country. The effect of the' strike upon trade, if long continued, cannot fail to be felt hi many directions. Lieut. Bertholf, sent by the Interior Department to Siberia to purchase reindeer for use in Alaska, wires that he has purchased 500 for 13 roubles each.