The Portland daily press., 1893-12-30
DYING IN GLOONl.
Nothing Like the Past Year Since
the Great Panic Of 49,,
AND III is DOUBTFUL 1T THAT
WAS MORE SEVERE.

The Year Opened With High Hopes and
Universal Confidence-R. G. Dun & Co.
Say 1t Has Proved the Most Disastrous
in Half a Century-Fieures Which
Show the Remarkable slirinkage in
Trade and the Attendant Disasters.
New York, Decem ber 29.-R. G.. Dun
and Co.'S weekly review of trade will
say that, starting with the largest trade
ever known, with mills crowded with
work, with all business stimulated by
high hopes, the yearl1S93 has proven, in
the sudden shrinkage of trade, in COM
mercial disasters and in the depression of
industries, the worst for fifty years.
Whether the final results of the panic of
1887 were relatively more severe, the
scanty records of that time do not
clearly show. The year closes with the
prices of many products the lowest ever
known, with millions Of workers seeking
in vain for work, with charity laboring
to keep back suffering and starvation in
all the cities All hope that the new
year may bring brighter days. The
dying year leaves only dismal record.
The review of the departments of trade
given today exhibits collapse Of in
dustry and business almost without
precedent. The iron industry sustained
a weekly production of 1S1, 551 tons OF
pig, Nav /. By October /, the output
had fallen to 73, ,oa5 tons. recovery to
about 100, 900 Decem bera1s still leaves 40
per cent of the force unemployed. over
half of the woolen manufactures are
4 hriQ n
November have been ever since the new
wool came. The sales at the three chief
markets in eight months have been but
1O6, 795, 460 pounds, and these partly for
speculation, the price having fallen 20
per cent for fleece or to the lowest point
ever known: There was 2l2,3 3a9,W,3
pounds sold in the same months last
year. The sales Of cotton goods are fully
a quarter below the usual quantity. A
small advance attempted in boots and
shoes a year ago was not sustained and,
with prices as low as ever, shipments OF
boots and shoes from Boston are 20 per
cent less than last year in December.
Not only manufactured goods as a
whole, but most of the important farm
products are so low that producers have
had little comfort Official and other
reports deIuded traders with a notion
that the crops.last year were so short that
famine prices could be realized on pur-
chaSeS. COnSequeuGly, eHollHuuS seOchS
were bought and held with the aid of
banks until heavy receipts in the spring
caused collapse of the wheat, pork and
cotton pools. Disastrous failures helped
to produce alarm, which soon made
money impossible to get. Even at the
worst hour of the panic, prices were
scarcely lower than they are now. Wheat
has recently sold here and in Chicago at
the lowest price ever known and is but
half cent above it now. Cotton was lifted
a cent with accounts of the scarcity in
September, but lost most of the gain and
sells below eight cents. Thus unreason-
able speculation preventing the sale Of
surplus products has proved great
injury to farmers at a time when their
enforced curtailment of purchases was
disastrous to all other industries
Monetary anXieties appeared to caused
panic and this became epidemic when
doubts were raised in April about the
redempti of treasury notes in silver.
Western banks gave reason for distrust
by their connection with real estate,
produce and stock ventures. Deposits in
the national banks alone decreased in
five months nearly three hundred
millions, while purchases shrunk SO
much that many hands were out of work
OF earning reduced wages, and business
| of all kinds was SO reduced that the
accumulation of idle money became the
greatest ever known, exceeding 200
| millions at New York. The transactions
! through all the clearing houses outside
of New York in January were 10. 5 per
cent larger than last year; g. per cent
larger in the first quarter, slightly larger
in the second quarter, but 23.7 per cent
smaller in the third quarter and 20 per
| cent smaller in the last quarter.
| Clear evidence of the shrinkage in the
different branches OF business is afforded
by the answers received to several
thousand circulars requesting figures of
sales during the last half of 1888 and
1892. Full information of the results
I will be given hereafter. Returns of
textile goods already received show
sales amounting to $43, ss3.s75 this
year against $40, 341, 1882 last year, a de-
crease Of 81 per cent. iron returns thus
far aggregate $40, 853, 1S0 against $65, 52O,-
| 921 last year, decrease OF 36 per cent.
| Reports thus far received of furniture
manufactures, 1S per cent, and by
dealers s per cent; of clothing 10 per
cent. It is curious that the only trade
showing any increase as yet is in
groceries, the aggregate sales being one
per cent larger than the last half of 1892.
In the thirty-seven years covered by
the records of this agency, the number
above $3.50 in year. In 1898, the num-
her reported is 1860 The aggregate
liabilities in all the failures reported in
six years has risen above 200 millions.
This year, the strictly commercial
liabilities alone exceed 1881, ,422, 939,
while the liabilities of banking and
financial institutions were $21, ,956. S44 !;
the liabilities of railroads placed in the
hands of receivers about $1,212,2 217 ,033.
All the reports hitherto have been, to
some extent, erroneous, through the in
clusion of failures not strictly CONNER
cial. The classified returns show 1926
maui featuring failures with liabilities
of 1854, 7O7, 40; 1858 failures in legiti-