Morning journal and courier., 1890-03-22
WEEKLY REVIEW OF rnApE.

1 Business Large, but the Recent Belat. ed Fragment Of Winter Disturbed Trade a Litt1e-KncouraRine Reports From all Sectlons-BusiMess Failures 0fthe Week.
 NEW YORK, March 21.-R. G. Dun 6 Co. 's
 weekly review of trade says: The business ot to-day is large. But, signs are not entire- ly HatterinR as to the business of tomorrow. Another belated fragment of winter, which would have been welcome in January, came just in time to disturb trade little, but the volume of business is indisputably larger than in any previous year at this season. All the signs prove that actual shrinkage of con- sumption is confined to @ few lines only, prin- cipally those affected directly by the absence of winter, but that in other branches con- sumption is larger than at any former tine.- In some cases, as in iron, the only difficulty or danger comes from the fact that a consumption clearly the largest ever known is probably surpassed by production far be- yond all records.
 Reports from every part of the country represent trade as fairly satisfactory, though at Philadelphia, where the squirt of winter has set back spring trade; dry goods are dull, the trade in cloth- ing equal to expectations, liquors at stand still, hardware not active but equal to last year. drugs and chemicals in fair demand, and the coal trade stagnant. Complaints of slow collections are more general. Boston notes no improvement, purchases of wool, hides, leather and cotton restricted to i'm mediate needs, woolen goods dull, cottons selling only fairly well and better demand for boots and shoes.
 New Orleans reports planting much inter- rupted by floods, but the danger is abating. Cleveland, Denver and Omaha report im- provement and other western cities fairly satisfactory trade, though at several eollec- tions are tardy, but at Pittsburg depression in iron and steel and slow trade in glass, due to extravsgant cost of materials, cause some disappointment. Those who predicted that prices of iron and it's products must rise in spite of the unprecedented output now admit that prices are lower and the market unset- tied and close on demoralization. The offers of southern iron are the obvious cause-No. at $8.25 here and gray forge at $1e.50. Low CT prices by twenty five to fifty cents per ton are made at Pittsburg, with $1 lower for rails, $2 lower for blooms and billet and manufactured iron weaker. The fact of greatest significance repeatedly noted here has been the slackening in demand for fin ished products, and some concessions are now made in eastern markets on rails for billets. There are few sellers and no buyers, and the bar mills are running short of orders. In general consumption is larger than year ago, but clearly shows reaction from the great rush of last fall.
 Another important failure comes at 8 time when banks had begun to seek com mercial paper more freely. Importers are rushing in goods in anticipation of change of tariff but in dress goods it is between seasons in mems woolens trade is limited and many mills are not supplied with orders, and in cottons while sales are fair in volume the present high price of material affects profits. Cotton has been steady. Receipts falling 35 ,000 bales and exports 30,000 be- low last years for the same week. Wool is dull and weaker. The best Ohio fleece com- manding only 33 to 33 1-2 cents at Boston. The business failures occurring throughout the country during the last seven days ss re- ported to R. G. Dun & Co. and E. Russell & Go. of the mercantile agency number for the United States 215 and for Canada 40, or total of 255 as against total of 260 last week and 252 the week previous to the last. For the corresponding week of last year the figures were 249, representing 22O failures in the United States and 29 in the Dominion of Canada.