Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-05
CONDITION OF OMAHA'S TRADE
JObbing Trade Shows Substantial Gains
Over March of Last Year,
COLLECTIONS STILL REMAIN VERY SLOW
Value of Live stock at About the Lew
est Point i'm YcnrS-IInrdwarc Men
Interested In Combination
Formed to Advance Prices.

The general business situation can hardly
be said to be any better, nor is it any worse
than 1t has been for the past few weeks.
Each week has its own special features, but
they are of such slight Importance that IL Is
difficult to detect any material change IN
the situation even when looking back sew
eral weeks. Manufacturers and jobbers IN
this city are doing a fair business, but there
Is no great activity only moderate move
ment of merchandise into consuming chan
nes In some lines the desire Of eastern
manufacturers to bring about a more rapid
movement has been productive of lower
prices while on the other hand there are
rumors of advances to come In some other
liLes.
If 1t is hardly possible to note any ma
terial improvement in the condition OF trade
from day to day, or by making comparisons
between the past few weeks, II Is very eVi-
dent that there has been considerable
change since a year ago With the ending
of March there has been CASING up ,od vi
results are decidedly interesting, The re-
ports from the different houses indicate a
sarng gan March II the Of IS vS%s Sna 20 per cent
pared with the corresponding month of
1895. and in excepional cases si, ,naEaa sigh,S
in the volume of the jobbng trade Just
about ,corresponds with the the gga,in gg,ino in the
The feeling in the jobbing. district ap-
pears to be one Of general satisfaction over
the ondt9n oa Of be trade @h'Eh nhdeT
the circumstances. Reports from the coun.
try that have come to hand during the past
an encouraging character. The soil is in
Ing well for this early In the season.
BOOMING IRON AND STEEL.
Local hardware men have been very much
Interested in the combination of eastern
steel and iron men. as it promises & to work fns.
some weeks iron men have been scarce
article on the. road and their visits have
been few and far between, so that the job
bcrs were prepared for something. of the
kind when the news OF the eombination
came out soms idea of the possl6en OF vses es
may be gained from the fact that during
the past year up to within few days ago ago,
Of % a little over @ 81 per ton. with the forma-
biets to advance 4.
In the opinion of the local iron men me the the
among the nail mills has done much to en-
courage iron and steel men to take the
same course for advancing prices year ear
SIS SIS per per S keg that bring ss45 at the present
price price, on IN steel billets noted above, viii give
some idea Of the possibilities in the way
f re VIII be ond It Of i he s ardes he
that will feel the effects of the pool and an
advance of at least 25 per cent will not
be surprising.
LIVE STOCK SITUATION.
Perhaps the most satisfactory. feature of
the present business situation is the state
Of the live, live stock market THAI That busnsss bs st
tard the imprOyement Of trade soi,3a in Omaha mi
low. as they are and the condition of the
trade very bad Is q. much more serious
Of ofar Business 'e at h South S omaha Affects he
stock, market is a misfortune that falls
heavily upon the producers of the country
During the, month just closed there We're
received at South Omaha only S7sl2 head of
month of March since 1889. The largest
business ever done In the month in ques,
op he % Se Wan 'a gt afryfa gaa
as compared with the previous year, but a
heavy falling off as compared with the pre-
Ret Was just about 81 per 100 lower than
the annual March average for the past
tion Of 1889 fat cattle have sold on an aver
age during the past month lower than dur
Ing March of any other year in in the ,es past
the month prices on choice heavy, beeves
were the lowest that they have been at
=, In the present condition of the market
there Is nothing for the producer but loss
that have sold during the past thirty days
at the low prices noted above cost good
deal Of money as feeders, that kind of cat
of beef After paying for their cattle the
feeder is fortunate if he can figure out pay
for his corn, even at the. very low prices
turn for his labor and capital invested.
hog market, the conditions are not much
more, encouraging During the. month Of
omnaa st yar PAST 5s hoHg aTsd %heb the se b
lightest run for that month since 1890. 1t
ye Rs fag off + in nots the ha haper %h
head arriving, there was an enormous gain
in the weight of the hogs That corn makes
hogs, hogs was s never more fully exemplifed than
pounds each. as against I'll pounds pounds for for
the month of March 1895 Ever since the
and In March the heaviest of any corre-
spending month since 1889, showing the ef-
fects Of the abundance of cheap corn in
the country. If the Increase in the weight
is taken into consideration it will be easily
shown that instead of there being a falling
Off nbhe in the receipts there here has been gain
As to the market, values as in the case
OF beeves have been very low in fact, with
one exception lower than during any CORE
March 1891. the market dropped to a lower
point, but II only remained there a few
GAYS, o;, wnen II advanced t rapidly, closing the
market.
The unfavorable condition OF the live stock
trade appears to be due entirely to the very
limited demand for the product, 1t seems
impossible to force meat into consumption
even with the inducement OF unusually low
prices, For some reason the public does not
take TO meat preferring. apparently, some
thing still cheaper, and until the consump-
tion Is greatly increased 1t hardly seems
reasonable TO expect any material improve
ment In the condition of the live stock
market.