Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-08-11
AN UNCERTAIN MARKET.
There Has Been an Increaso of Business in
 Spite of This.

Spite of This
 NEW YORK, Aug. ii.-R. c. Dun & Go. s weekly review of trade says today: With changes every hour in the prospects about the tariff and decision expected every day, business has unpleasantly re- sembled gambling Orders and purchases have been largely based upon individual opinions regarding the legislative out come, and a vast amount of business has been deferred because the decision was yet in the future. The accommodating de- mand which has stimulated trading and manufacturing within the past week or two represents to a great extent needs which have been postponed waiting for a settlement but can be postponed no longer.
 Thus both the rush of deferred business in many lines and the scantiness of new orders reaching into the future reflect an unnatural state of things which cannot be expected to continue, and while the volume of business Is larger than tho ex- isting condition of uncertainty warrants 1t is in a sense but shadow of the larger business which should come with a re- moval of uncertainty.
 In such circumstances the present in dications and conditions are of compara- lively little value. but tho startling ad- vance in corn discloses a general belief that the injury to this most important crop has been so great ns to affect materi- ally the traffic of railroads, the demand for manufactured products and the cost of meats for the coming year. Unless the markets deceive and are entirely deceived, tho country has to face n real calamity in the loss of something like 800, ,0o0, 900 bushels of corn, and this loss consumers have to share through the advance of II cents in two weeks and cents since Fri day of last week Neither official not un- official statements as yet preclude the hope that the loss may prove less serious, but at current prices ,50O, GOO. 900, GOO bushels would cost as much as ?, 0o0, 900. O00 900 bushels would cost fortnight ago.
 The iron and steel manufacture records n great increase of nearly 30, 900 tons in weekly output in July, and the produc- tion is l15, 356 tons weekly, about Il, 900 tons less than in April, but s, 900 tons more than n year ago, whom the prostra- ton had nearly reached its worst. The decrease in unsold stocks was only 6, 13T tons for the month. showing a consump- ton in manufacture not quite equal to the present output. Prices sustain this view, having changed only in the direc- tion of weakness, and the disappointing demand for finished products is still the main factor Minor metals are on the whole weaker.
 The business in boots and shoes Is strong and healthy, though conspicuously confin- ed to medium and low priced articles, such us 75 cent shoes for mems and b5 to GO cents for women's wear, but shipments from Boston have been in two weeks l66. e93 cases against 122, S26 last year.
 People cannot go naked even If congress ia Stn nannnn1S rlp ly represent exhaustion of stocks and con tinuing needs for consumption in the main, though there has sprung up quite a speculative business on the possible fail urc of tariff legislation. Lower prices in some cotton goods have encouraged larger operations, and the proposed reduction of wages at Fall River Is now announced. us yet without clear indication whether 1t Is to be followed by n strike.