The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-13
MORE ENCOURAGING
STEADY PROGRESS TOWARD BET
TER BUSINESS IN ALL LINES.
calities-Dun & Co. and Bradstreet
Review the Weeks Trade.


weekly review of trade. which issues to-
morrow, will say: Progress toward better
business continues, but ii is slow and
meets many obstacles. In speculative as
poets and in wholesale demands for goods
the week shows improvement. Money mar
kets are undisturbed and a little more ac-
tive. But among the chief obstacles is the
anxiety of operatives to secure better
wages, even while many manufacturing
works are running without profit and others
at the risk of loss. In number of es-
adjustments better wages have been con-
ceded, thus increasing the purchasing pow
or Of the people, but strikes have largely
overbalanced settlements, several of i'm
portance having thrown about twelve thou
sand workers out of employment this week
Retail trade has improved on the whole
since March, as the approach of Easter
brings more business, but distribution to
individual consumers still lags behind pur-
chases of jobbers and such demand for
products as springs fIcm building and
other investments looking into the future
Crop prospects viii greatly affect the course
of trade for some months and the govern
ment report had little influence TO dis
courage. For consumers the worst feature
Is the rapid advance In meats.
For the first time in a long period prices
Of commodities average shade higher than
a year ago and in Great Britain also,
ing to dIrferent causes, a silgnt advance
occurred in March. On both sides of the
ocean the lowest level ever known may
naturally be followed by some rise. Cotton
is both sides buoyant than any
thing else except meats and petroleum here,
crude oil having risen TO $IoU the highest
price for over, seventeen years. Nothing
supports the advance of an eighth in cot
ton the past week except the impression
that the next crop will be short, for re-
more than the largest crop ever grown
have already. come into sight this year.
Wheat has yielded nearly cent although
Atlantic exports for two weeks nave been
800. CAB bushels, flour included, against 81
5ss6ss bushels last year. With D.. Western tsa re-
last year. Receipts or corn are about half
and exports about one-fifth Of last years.
gerated, 65s. 400 having arrived at Chicago,
against 1883 to date last year. and the
prevalent opinion is that Western packers
are helping nature to some extent
The output of pig iron April was 1892
tons weekly practically the s same 1nns as as
unsold stocks during the month. Doubtless
heavy stocks We're taken up by manufac-
works, but the apparent consumption is
larger than at any other time for some
months ana only s iron has ass savan a
little further to sos at Pittsburg, but
there is no change whatever In prices OF
while the demand continues good for
structural forms and little better Tor
bar, the market decrease in demand for
farmers for fencing, affects the outlook.
1t seems probable that pig iron must re,
cede unless a larger demand for finished
products is soon developed. Sales of wool
are particularly interesting, amounting for
the week to 6030,200 pounds and for five
weeks previous to 25.6 .zO0 against 25,277.-
676 lin the same weeks of 1892. In brief,
sales. are close to the quantity required for
placing orders and the lateness of the sea-
son make the proportion of mills at work
larger than usual. No Improvement In
prices appears, and domestic wool does not
respond to recent advances In foreign mar
kets. The. low price encourages manuIac-
with the foreign goods of many kinds than
they had expected and for the medium and
than the usual demand, because purchases
of consumers have for two years been COM
paraIiyely small. The better goods farc
not so well, foreign competition Deing more
effective, but there is good demand for
dress goods. In cottons continued strength
appears with, further occasional advances
OF 1tc and 1sc in print cloths, and the as-
gregate is fair. Many agents are sold well
Failures for the week were 207 in the
United States, against 218 last year, and
twenty-seven in Canada, against thirty-four
last year.
Bradstreets Weekly Review.
NEW YORK, April 12.-Bradstreet's to-
morrow will say: The feature in trade cir
cles is found in the price movement, more
particularly those for cattle. dressed beef
and petroleum. Drought low prices and
hard times within IS two weeks have
resulted in shorter supply of cattle.
prospectively 30 per cent less than last
year. Live cattle are $3.50 higher per 100
pounds than last year. and 81 higher than
the lowest point this year. Dressed beef is
2A cents higher than the average last
year, the highest since 1885. The compare
tive scarcity of high-grade cattle is en-
phasized by the fact that present quota
tons, when made in previous periods of
scarcity, have never failed to bring a sup
ply when one existed. Petroleum. sold at
$157la on Thursday, 81 cents higher than on
Jan. and rs cents higher than year
lowest price in 1892, and the highest quota
ton since 1878. Reduced production and in
Sa 6aen bc with the
stocks, produced excitement in the market.
Other advances are of Leather and hides,
Shippers of anthracite coal to New Eng
land points ask more f. o. b.. at New
York. At the West bar and manufactured
actions. Lard is higher and cotton is up
Y,l6 cent Recent gains am, IN pr.ces for
tanned, but the request at Pittsburg and
Chicago is checked Coffee and sugar
reactions include fractional declines only
in wheat corn, oats and pork, the latter
on lower prices of hogs.
Compared with February March returns .
of gross earnings of 100 railroad companies
may be construed as favorable, the in
crease over March, 1894, being to / per
cent This is to be contrasted with a Feb
ruary decrease this year from last of 2.3
per cent. and of the January falling off
this year from last of one-half of / per
cent. When it is recalled that gross rail-
way earnings in March, 1884, fell off IS per
cent from the total that month in 1893, an
increase last month from March, 1894, of
one-fifth of per cent. acquires significance.
Exports of wheat from both coasts of 4
the United States this week, flour in
cluded as wheat held up to a high aver
age-2,934,179 bushels-against :. s53 1913 bush
els in the previous week, 1.955500 bushels in
the second week of April. 1894, 2,94S, 052 BUSH
els in the same week in 1898, 2,910356 BUSH
els in 1892 and 2.456, $50 bushels in the second
week of April, 1891.
The maintenance of a generally higher
range of clearings totals, an improved out
look for manufacturers in the staple lines
the spread of the feeling of confidence that
the volume of business will increase in
the near future and an improved crop out
look in Western and Northwestern grain
States are among the more significantly ia
vorable features.
I,..u