The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-16
BBADsrREErs REPORT.
It Does Not Give Very Encouraging News
 for Business.

l for Business.
 New York, Feb. IS -Bradsrreets to- morrow will say: Milder and pleasantel weather following the severe storms and extremely low temperature have with few exceptions, failed to stimulate orders for seasonable goods or the dis tribution movement generally. Excep. tions include revival of demand in a | leather and paper in Philadelphia, and in general merchandise at Savannah and Jacksonville, the only southern cit ies reporting trade better and mercan- | tile collections good. At the west there are improved sales by Chicago jobbers
 in dry goods, clothing, furnishings, shoes and rubbers, and Kansas City an nounces larger volume of spring busi- ness. Demand for staples has increas- ed at Milwaukee and at St. Paul, point- ing to small stocks held by country dealers. Elsewhere general trade re-
 
 dustries find the week not up to expect ations.
 The spring trade outlook at Baltimore is less favorable, there having been a falling off in receipts of orders from travellers. Mercantile collections south and west with few exceptions, are slow and unsatisfactory. Southern merchants and manufacturers, in some instances, are making greater efforts to collect amounts due than to sell goods. As one consequence of the recent extreme weather trade at Augusta has fallen off and at Birmingham, Chattanooga At lanta and New Orleans. Merchants at the latter point find an unfayorable in- 1uence also in the stoppage of payments of sugar bounties. Word comes from Texas that snow throughout the state has checked the volume of trade in all directions.
 Prices, on the whole, have maintained a position of relative steadiness, east ern manufacturers of shoes asking higher prices, in view of late ad vance in. leather and spruce lumber from frame shaving being marked up about 20 per cent. January gross earn ings of railways indicate the bottom has been touched, but there are signs of improvement accompanying them. Returns from 133 American and Mexican railroads cover 102,000 miles of track and $36, O00 of gross earnings in January a falling off of three-tenths of 1 per cent. from January last year, in which month there was a decrease of 12 per cent from the total in Janu- ary, 1893.
 The decrease in January earnings of railroads in the United States alone is six-tenths of 1 per cent The poor est showing is made by the granger lines, but decreases are reported from January earnings year ago by east ern, southern and Pacific groups of roads. Central western roads, the coalers and southwestern announce gains in January over last year. More than one-half of the companies report gains for January this year over last year, but these are small and are off set by few heavy decreases.
 The effects on business of the storm and low temperature. together with the check to trade since January l are to make themselves apparent in the bank clearings, the total for the past business days amounting to $S4,- l0O 900 or 16 per cent. less than last week and only per cent. more than n the second week of February a year ago. Compared with the weekly total ,f clearings in the corresponding week of 1893 the decrease this week is 26 per cent. The number of business fail tres in the United States this week was '96 as compared with 28S in the second week of February last year.