Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1902 — COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

fZ ~ ~l ‘‘Complaints are increasnfil lOtt. * n K as t 0 tbe tardy move* W——-——' naent of freight* miles of cars being stalled by the lack of motive power, and many roads refuse to accept further shipments until the blockades are' relieved. Lower temperature has stimulated retail sales of seasonable merchandize, but frost comes too late to seriously injure agricultural products. Liberal consumption sustains Quotations In most lines; domestic demands being supplemented by large exports.” The foregoing is from the Weekly Trade Review of EL G. Dun & Co. It continues: Operating expenses of the railways 'have increased in many cases to such a degree that net earnings are somewhat curtailed, but gross earnings for October thus far exceed last year’s by 4.7 per cent and those of 1900 by 13.5 per cent. Undue significance is attached to the announcement .that the Frick Company will not advance next year’s price for coke above $3. Although this is in line with other conservative efforts of leading interests to prevent inflated prices, the probable influence on the outside market will not be great, as the bulk of output ■will go to the various plants of the United States Steel Corporation. Meanwhile sales are being made at sl6 in extreme cases, and the scsircity has closed more blast furnaces. The future course of the iron and steel industry will be largely influenced' by this fuel shortage, much business being permanently lost to home producers, and prices in some departments already show the effect of disorganized conditions. Railway needs have not diminished, numerous large orders constantly appearing, while the pressure for locomotives is causing large premiums -to be ' Offered. Structural shapes for bridge and ship building are next in point of urgent demand. Agreement on the tin plate wage scale may secure a lot of business that now goes out of the country, and some reduction in prices is expected. Wire nails are also cheaper, but as a rule quotations are well maintained. Conditions at the cotton mills are healthy, a scarcity of goods being general, while there is no disposition to force transactions. It is early for supplementary buying of spring woolen goods and fall trade is finished, so that these divisions of the market are naturally quiet. Raw wool is very firm at the leading eastern markets, which are shipping freely to the mills. Bradstreet’s report giving grain figures says: Wheat, including flour, exports for the week ending Oct. 30 aggregate 5,997,620 bushels, against 7,060,417 last week, 6,672,888 in this week last year and 3,612,421 in 1900. Wheat exports since July aggregate 91,428,937 bushels, against 106.728,939 last season and 63,847.564 in 1900. Corn exports aggregate 153,200 ■ bushels, against 84,564 last week, 606,159 last year and 3,920,110 in 1900.

777 The Northwest would LDICdQO. welcome a turn of bright, —— cool weather. Business in the aggregate was hardly up to the mark, warm weather having covered a portion of the week, holding back retail demand in some degree. The week in its early part witnessed a rise to for December wheat, but on laterd trading a 2-cent reaction was made. This was hardly surprising in view of the almost uninterrupted rise for three weeks that carried December up from 67%c. Flour demand has not been so brisk, but the Minneapolis mills are oversold to Dec. 1, and are grinding about 1,750,000 bushels of wheat every week. Receipts there meanwhile are moderate and even with the increase of 791,103 bushels in stocks last week, and another increase of 603,624 bushels this week, there is a total of only 3,057,133 bushels in Minneapolis elevators, a remarkably low stock for the season. The transportation situation is, if anything, a little worse, the railroads having hard work to handle the freight. All over the country side tracks are filled with loaded cars, while in the Northwest the grain shippers complain that even after they get the empty cars and load them out it is often seven to twelve days before they reach their destination.