Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-13
 A PUFF OF TRADE WIND. Price Movements Are tho Feature
 of the Week. IT IS SLOW IN COMING Nearer All the WhiIe-Trade
 Review Summaries.
IT IS SLOW IN COMING

NEW YORK. April 12.-R. Ct. Dun & Co.'s weekly review of trade tomorrow will say:
 Progress toward better business contin. ues, but 1t is slow and meets many obsta- cles. Ia speculative aspects, and in The wholesale demand for goods, the week shows improvement. Money markets are undisturbed and a little more active. But among the chief obstacles is the anxiety of operatives to secure better wages, even while many manufacturing works are run ning without profits and others at the risk of loss. h number of esta ablishments better wages have been conceded, tn us in- creasng the purchasing power of the peo- pie, but strikes have largely overbalanced settlements, several having thrown about l2,000 workers out of employment this week.
 RETAIL TRADE HAS IMPROVED on the whole since March, as the approach of Easter brings more business, but the distribution to individual consumers still lags behind purchases of jobbers and such demand for products as springs from build ing and other investments looking into the future. Crop prospects will not greatly affect the course of trade for some months
 
 ence to discourage. For consumers the worst feature is the rapid advance in meats.
 For the first time in iong period prices of commodities are averaging a shade higher than year ago, and in Great Brit ain also owing to different causes a slight advance occurred in March. On both sides of the ocean the low, st level ever known may naturally be followed by some rise. DOMESTIC TRADE
 shown by payments through the clearing house is 7.9 per cent larger than last year, , but POP per cent smaller than in 1893. About this time two years ago retail busi- ness began to drop of and mills to close, but half the difference in the volume of business is due to tbe fall in prices.
 The last week for exports was especially good showing an increase of IS per cent, but March returns for the principal pro- ducts show decrease of $5253, 481, or II 5 per cent against an increase of 10 per cent In imports in New York.
 THE IRON MARKET.
 The output of pig iron April was 15S, 132 tons weekly, practically the same as March 1, with decrease of 1050 tons in less heavy stocks were taken up by manu- lecturers In anticipation of a strike in the coke works, but the apparent consumption is larger than at any other time for some months, and only sixth less than in March, 1892. Bessemer iron has advanced a little further to $10.75 at Pittsburg, but there is no change whatever in prices of finished products during the week, and while the demand continues good for structural forms and little better for bar, the marked decrease In the demand for wire, owing to the scant purchases Of farmers for fencing, affects the outlook. It seems proba ble that pig iron must recede until larger demand for finished products is soon developed.
 The shoe man ufacturer continues to lead n n r yui ali fQ nf per cent larger number in cases than year ago, though not in value, while orders have been more liberal at advanced prices.
 SALES OF WOOL
 are particularly interesting amounting for the week to 6,030, ,210 pounds and for five weeks previous 10 25,621 200 against 25,- 277 ,678 in the same weeks of 1892. In brief, sales are close to the quantity required for a iull consumption, and the long delay in placing orders and the lateness of the .sea- son make the proportion of mills at work larger than usual. No important mprove- ment in prices appears and domestic wool does not respond to recent advances in for eign markets. The low price encourages manufacturers to compete much more vigorously with foreign goods of many kinds than they had expected aud for the medium and cheaper grades of goods they have more than the usual demand, because purchases Of consumers have for two years been comparatively small. The better gOOuS are not 50 well, foreign com petition being more effective. but there is good demand Tor dress goods. In cottons continued strength appears, with further occasional advances of 4 and B in print cloths, and the aggregate is far. Many agents are sold well ahead.
 MONEY IS EASIER,
 and supplies are again coming from the in terior, while foreign exchange has been at the exporting point. More commercial paper is now offering, principally in dry goods, though the amount is not large.
 Failures for the first four days of April showed liabilities of $1, 188, ,523, of which $445, $40 were of man nufacturing and S242 ,6s2 oi trading concerns. Failures for the week were 2O7 in the United States against 21S last year, and twenty-seven in Canada, against thirty four last year.
 BRADSrREET'S REPORT.i
 NEW YORK, April 12.-Bradstreet's to- morrow will say: The feature in trade cir cles is founded on the price movements. more particularly those for cattle, dressed beef and petroleum. Drouth, low prices and "hard times'' within two years have resulted in shorter supply of cattle. pros pectlveIy 30 per cent less than last year. Live cattle are S1 60 higher per 100 pounds than last year, and $1 higher than the low est point this year. Dressed beef is 21sc higher than the average last year, the highest since 1885. The comparative scarc- ity of grade cattle is emphasized by the fact that present quotations when made D previous periods of scarcity have never failed to bring a supply when one existed.
 Petroleum sold to $1.67h Thursday, 62 can ta h her than On January and 10 cents