The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-06-30
Good and Bad News is Reported
This Week.
BETTER BUSINESS CONDITIONS
REPORTED FROM MANY
TRADE CENTERS

The Railroad Strike is a Bad Feature
and is Menace to Business in the
West-New England Cotton Mills Are
Overloaded and May Shut Down.
New York, June 29.-Bradstreets tomorrow
will say: While there is no actual improve
ment in business throughout the country,
there are more favorable prospects and a
better feeling among merchants with in
creased number of instances where trade Is
stimulated. The ending of the great bitimu-
nous coal strike is followed by strike of
railway employees which threatens disas-
trous effect on business by reason of inter
ference with the distribution and travel
Other unfavorable features include con-
ference of Rhode ISLAND. cotton mill owners
as to the advisability of shutting down
owing to the accumulation of stocks; the
heavy arrivals of wool at eastern markets,
where stocks are already large; the delay in
settling the coke strike, which prevents
many industrial establishments from start
ing up; the extremely restricted volume of
business among wholesale dealers in cloth
ing at Baltimore, only 43 per Gel t of what it
was in the first half of last year; delayed
orders from country merchants in Georgia
and South Carolina. where crop damage
is threatened, .ssand the sharp restric-
tion in volume of general trade at Chicago,
where the railway strike centres. At New
Orleans the trade in all lines is smaller. At
Nashville and Birmingham, Alabama, it is
dull, without sign of early improvement
which is true at Portland, Oregon.
FAVORABLE FEATURES.
Important among the favorable features are
rains throug hout the South Atlantic, Gulf,
South, Central and Northwestern States,
where crop damage was feared with result
ing gains to small grains, cotton, fruit and
vegetables
New England woolen mills at work on
dress goods and mems wear report a mo der
ate revival in orders and snoe shipments
banks report an increased demand for loans
and Providence jewellers have fair orders
for autumn delivery. :, The, demand is in
burg; iron at Philade delphia, st. Louis and
Chicago. AT the latter points the market is
firmer. The most favorable report comes
ness, after marked increase within the
week is, reported as about normal
Kansas City iobbers have announced the
receipt Of small orde.g in staples and
loans increasing. jobberS at three larger
Minnesota cities report an improved feeling
among the country merchants in that state
and North Dakota reflected on orders re-
Gently received There is improved trade at
Memphis, Jackson and Charleston, due pri-
marlly to the effect of rain on the crops.
Atlanta announces the volume OF trade for
June as about equal to June of last year
and the country merchants are ordering for
future delivery.
There is more activity in nearly all the
lines of business at Augusta and the de-
mand for cotton is heavier Continued i'm
provement is reported from Galveston where
collections are easier. 81
There has been a. decided drop in the
total bank clearings within the week All
along the line the total being only $761 ,000,-
600, ten per cent less than last week 20 per
cent less than the week of a year ago.
The exports of wheat, -four included, from
both coasts, is equal to 1,!17,000 bush els,
Of 1898.
The total number of actual business
failures in the United States for the six
than liabilities are s52s more than for for ray any
previous similar period, an increase of 46
per cent compared with the first half of 1888.
and Y per cent more than for six months
of 1892, The present tendency in numbers of
failures to decrease is shown by the fact
that while at the end of the first quarter of
the current year an increase over the like
period of last year by 300 failures; at the
end of the half year it was only 2S9. The
total liabilities OF failing traders for six
months as $82, $50, 900, assets being 81 per
cent of that total These aggregates each
are less than half of what there were in six
months of 1898, and is smaller than six
months of 1891 Pennsylvania and California
show striking increases in the numbers of
failures, and Illinois and Kansas note
worthy decreases; In New:EnglaRd as else
where, there has been more business failures
than in the first half of last year, but the
liabilities have shrunk 70 per cent. The
number of failures in New England for the
last six months was 109; liabilities S1O,764-
557; assets 1881, 700, against 9l9 failures;
liabilities $17 7346 440 and assets $56S9, ,40S, of
the first half of 1888.