Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1904 — COMMEPCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMEPCIAL AND FINANCIAL

Special telegrams from correspondent! of the International Mercantile Agency throughout the United States and Canada regarding the state of trade are summarized as follows. The event of the business week has been the discovery of a greatly improved demand for pig iron and wire nails, and for sonic forms of steel, notfibly sheets, bars and scrap. Increased demand for steel products Ims started some of the largest plants, and prices for varieties mentioned are $1 a ton higher. Wire nails have advanced still further. Ten or fifteen thousand more industrial employes have gone back to work within n week, hut in most instances at a lower rate of wages. The drag in the steel rail market results from unwillingness of railroad companies to pay $5 a ton more /than leading interests arc offering rails ...aliroad-:: ~ In New England it is still problematical how much the output of the cotton goods will be curtailed by the high price of cotton. Spring trade outlook in staple lines Is unexpectedly favorable. Some Boston merchants say they expect sales to exceed those of a year ago. At Chicago orders compare favorably with last year's, and at St. Louis they exceed those of the like period in 1003. At both Pittsburg and Philadelphia business men report a good effect from the improved "situation in iron and steel, orders have increased, factories and foundries have started up. Textile stocks at Philadelphia are light and increased outputs are predicted.

The volume of railway traffic,, at Chicago is 2 per cent larger than a year ngo, with slightly increased earnings. At Pittsburg the roads are carrying 15 per cent less than in January last year. 'Duluth merchants look confidently ahead to a large spring business. Minneapolis and St. Paul report jobbing satisfactory for the season. Louisville traders are discounting bills freely. Canada reports an active demand for seasonable goods, and wholesalers at Toronto and Quebec have large orders for spring delivery. Railroads report a decrease in earnings from 1903 for the first week in the year.

Dun's weekly review trade for the week says: Distribution of commodities, as indicated by railroad returns, makes favorable comparison with a year ago, and there is heavier marketing of farm,, products. Manufacturing, particularly in iron, proceeds with renewed confidence and the employment of larger forces, the reduced cost of labor being now an important factor in the situation. Dealings in staple merchandise at wholesale are of fair volume, and increase appears in spring orders. Road salesmen are now well distributed throughout the interior, and the demand has opened satisfactorily in several branches, dry goods, men’s furnishings, and footwear showing best. Country merchants are for the present cautious in the extent of their selections, and disposed to defer their principal commitments in textile goods, with the prospect of a heavier business being negotiated in seasonable time, Retail trade has been somewhat retarded owing to broken weather, but the consumption of necessities is of fair proportions. Failures in the Chicago district are mostly among small traders, the total being forty-seven, ■ against twenty-eight a year ago.

Grain shipments, 2,436,483 bushels, including 1,144,920 bushels corn, are 14.09 per cent under the corresponding week of 1903. Demand has been best in the coarse cereals, but the aggregate of all transactions was disappointing. The market continues controlled by speculative features, and the range of prices established hinders cash business. Compared with closing prices a week ago, advances are in oats 1% cents, corn cents and wheat one-eighth. Flour shows increased output, and sales were larger both On domestic and export account.