The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-18
THE BUSINESS SITUATION.
Review by Henry CIews & Company
and Duns.

ing house of New York, sums up the
past week in the financial world as
follows:
The past week in Wall street has
heen devoid OF any special features.
For the class of securities adapted for
permanent investments such as rail
road bonos and steady dividend-pay-
ing stocks. there has been really
active demand for the receivers OF Jan
uary interest payments, with some
advance in the prices of such issues;
but. in the more transient operations
in stocks, the movement has contln-
ued limited. The various and IN many
respects unusual influences at present
affecting the market are conclusive 10
some degree of postponement OF spec
ulative transactions; but holders are
not, on that account, the less disposed
to cling to their holdings, and the SIT
uation is intrinsically strong enough
to resist the constant though gener-
ally public attacks on the bears.
There are. nevertheless, those who
think a revival of buying within the
range of early probabilities. The ten
dency in that direction, arising from
the still growing abundance o. money
and the low rates of interest, is very
generally conceded; but there is some
matters dependent upon congressional
action may permit of such move
ment 1t is perhaps safe TO say that
/ the calmer observers begin TO note a
change of feeling and estimate as to
! the future course of business. They
perceive that the extreme fright caused
/ by the silver panic and strengthened
by preparations for a sweeping change
of national commercial policy-how-
ever we'll founded it may have been
has yet run into an excess of collapse,
/ in which countervailing considera-
tions have had their due weight.
There is undoubte lily real force in
this view, and a certain degree of re-
action from this eXaggeration OF fear
must be forced upon the public feel
ling by the more sober second thought.
Such a paralysis of production as
has existed for the last six months is
entirely incompatible with supplying
the current wants of consumption.
Carefully compiled information gath
cred by one of the commercial agencies
from thousands of firms and corpora
tions shows that, for the last six
months, the contraction of sales by
manufacturers has been far more than
double that of merchants, and that in
some important branches of trade, the
curtailment of retail sales has been
comparatively nominal The amount
of imported merchandise going into
consumption at this port, during the
Hast half of 1893, was S84 600 less
than for the same time in 1892 which
amounts to a decrease of 80 per cent.
while, for the last two months, the
reduction averaged Sc per cent. These
facts show that although the reduc-
ton in the supply of goods coming
through Importation has not quite
equaled that which has occurred in
domestic sources of supply, yet the
curtailment even in this department
is in nearly double the ratio of the
decline that is shown by Dun's stats
tics to have occurred in the sales direct
Ito consumers. This process of con-
traction at the sources of supply, to
an extent so entirely disproportioned
to the actual consumption, and ex-
tending over more than six months
cannot failed to have produced de.
ipletion of stocks of merchandise vfr-
ltually unprecedented. Merchants
whose opinion is entitled to respect
tell US that, in the leading branches
of trade, the stocks Of today do moi
exceed a three weeks consumption al
the present curtailed rate
These facts have certainly this much
Observation-Disclosures else they may
imply,-that there must be an immedi
ate considerable resumption of produc
ton; and that such resumption, if con
Servatively adjusted to the demand
can be undertaken with reasonabl,
prospect of profit-for the relation O
supply and demand is entirely in favo
of the manufacturer This conclusion
is borne out by the process of resump
ton of work in iron works, in textile
factories and in their Industries, whicl
is becoming more marked every day
This resumption is also evidence tina
manufacturers have at last reached
point at which they can approximate,
estimate the conditions in which the,
will be placed under the new duties
and that consequently they feel 1t SAT
to undertake production to an exten
compatible with their being able t
control prices. leaving the ultimat
rate of output to be determined by tn
new duties finally established by Con
gress.
This puts a more hopeful aspect upol
the prospects of labor, which is nov
suffering from idleness and has los
much of its purchasing ability In thi
matter also there has been an exag
gerated misrepresentation. Estimate
have been published of an extent of I'm
employed labor which even largely ex
ceeds the entire number of operative
employed in the trades referred tc
The more exact inquiry has been in
! Stltuted, the more it has become evi
dent that the estimates of unemploye,
, throughout the country have been ex
aggerated in many cases tWo-fold q
even three-fold. These are discoverie
Of fact which are calculated to produc
a juster conception of the real condi
ton of business affairs. Wall stree
observers have an eye upon this pro
cess of correction of estimates. am
there are those who look at it as tn
occasion for an early restoration O
confidence and a revival of activity OF
the stock exchange.
/ Dun's Review has the following:
Business has distinctly improve
since the new year came. and the eai
is no longer visible only in speculativ
markets. 1t is the only kind of i'm
provement that has in it possibilitie
of lasting, because it is based l1po
actual increase in the production b
industries. AS all rejoice to see il
there is perhaps a little disposition t
= reckon the gain greater than it is a
yet, but several large establishment
have started with part force, hopin
to increase. and more smaller work
have started than have stopped. Order
from dealers whose stocks approac
exhaustion form a prominent caust
, another is the widely prevalent irnpres
sion that action at Washington will +
more satisfactory than many have g,
l pected; and belief that in any cas-
the situation will not be changed mt
goods now in the works can be narSe
ed has weight in some trades Wha-
ever the causes, even moderate gal