Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-29
COMMERCIAL NOTES.
Competition Among Flour Merchants
the Death of Trade.
MARGINS OF PROFIT ALMOST GONE.
A Satisfactory Weeks Trade in Lines of
Country Produce.
HIDES CONTINUE ON THE DECLINE
OFFICE OF PITTsBURG DISPATCH,
SATURDAY, September "a, lSSO.
Tn Gnraol Lima

In Cereal Lines.
There have been few changes in cereal
lines so far as our local market is concerned
during the past week. Receipts varied
only two carloads from those of the previous
week. Oats have been coming to the front
in large quantities, but in spite of this fact
markets continue firm with a tendency to
higher prices. For some days markets have
been almost bare of packing hay, and as
result prices have advanced 81 30 ton.
This, however, is probably temporary
squirt, as there is plenty in the land, and
other grades of hay are quiet. Corn and
wheat remain at about the same figure as at
the beginning of the week, but -four has de-
clined 25c per barrel. JoDbers claim that the
decline in flour here is relatively greater than
in the West and that margins are about obilt-
Grated.
Competition is so sharp and such is the eager
ness to secure trade that Pittsburg nour mer-
chants, while always sure to suffer from 1ali-
ing markets, fail to secure the full advantage
of rising markets as merchants OF other trade
centers do. Said leading dealer: Merchants
of New York and Chicago change their prices
as markets change, while in this CITY many, IN
order to hold or gain trade, Will sell al olG ng-
ures when there has been an advance both East
and West. and thus close out stock at prices
for which it cannot be replaced. The Gus
toner, however, is very quick to eaten on Wnen
there is reduction"
Produce and Provisions.
Produce men report satisfactory weeks
business. There has been a very heavy trade
IN grapes, according to general view the
heaviest ever transacted here in single week.
The principal sources Of supply are Northern
Ohio and Western New York. Apples are COM
ing in freely from the West, and markets are
shade lower. Choice potatoes continue firm,
with prospect for better prices. Demand IS
active for all good stock. The movement Of
dairy products shows increase the week past
over the previous week, and this at an advance
in creamery butter of lc per pound MILO
grades of cheese are barely steady and sharp
stock is weaker. In tropical fruit lines a
scarcity of lemons and oranges is reported,
with advancing markets Bananas are poor
stock and likely to continue so until the grape
crop is worked off.
The same rates which have prevailed in pro-
vision lines throughout the month were reaf-
firmed on Saturday for another week. Since
Monday last there has been sharp decline In
the price of hogs in our market, but prices
here had been: ceptionally high, as compared
with Buffalo and other live stock centers. Sc
Iected Philadelphlas sold at East Liberty on
Monday at S5 l5 and the same grade were
down to 81 IS on Wednesday. At no time this
week did tops sell as high as IS 90 at Buffalo,
where prices should range about the same as in
Pittsburg.
Hide. Very Dull.
The hide market continues very dull at the
reduction noted last week. Prospects are for
another reduction within few days, and
already it is reported that concessions are
being made at the reduced rates. According
to latest advices from Boston tanners there are
holding out for lower prices. Here trans
hos
week. The markets of the country are regu-
lated to a great extent by the prices paid by
Boston tanners. and there the markets are an
nounced as Nc off from prices OF last week.
While prices nominally remain in this city as
agreed on by tanners last Monday, real values
are a shade lower.
The following hopeful views of the financial
outlook are from the current number OF the
Chl iSttGn Union:
railways are doing an enormous business,
and if they were getting the old rates on this
vast movement Of traffic. they would be max
ing unprecedented earnings; as 1t Is with large
reductions in carrying rates. railways are max
ing great increases in gross receipts, with mod
crate increases in the net. Nor DO these ln-
creases seem to shrink in figures as we near the
last quarter of the year. The returns for the
two weeks in September, as reported by long
list of roads, are remarkable, for it must be re-
membered that the comparisons are being made
with earnings of last year swelleu far above
those of the same period in 1883. We
are getting increases on increases. Ihls
is not due to Western crops-these are smaller
in bulk-but to general activity in all direc-
tions. Yet so far as Southern roads are con-
cerned-roads that depend on the cotton crop
there is every promise of wonderful growth
of business for the cotton crop is, beyond
question, the largest ever raised. Every South
ern road is feeling the effect of this new crop;
the prospects which it affords to general trade
in the South are very bright; it acts as vast
stimulus. and now, as the cotton crop is moving
to the centers and to the seaboard, the full ex-
tent of this fresh impetus will assert itself both
in our domestic and foreign trade.
"The creation of cotton bills Of exchange is
lowering rates in the exchange market until
we are not far from gold imports. We may
reasonably expect to draw GOLD from the other
side in October, or November at furthest; this
outlook, together with the final laying of the
money scare, is certainly going to put a new
face on the security markets. Prices in these
have started up during the week; change of
an average of l per cent for the better is only
the forerunner of widening speculation"