Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-03-23
GOOD BUSINESS
During the Week in Shoes and
Small Industries.
The Smallest Sale of. Wool in Any
Week for Several Years.
A Sharp Decline in tho Prices of Cotton
Goods-Iron Industry Shows Slight
Decline-The Wheat Market Is Weak
Number of Failures Decreased.

NEW YORK, March 2l.--R. G! Dun &
Co. says Saturday:
Failures for two weeks of March COW
er liabilities of S6,799,087 against ST.
372,471 last year. Failures for the
week were 261 in the United States
against 27s last year and 40 in Canada
against IS last year. -
Movement toward better things is
still the exception. There is better
business in shoes and small industries,
and there has been squeezing of short
sellers in cotton, but the general ten
dency of industries and prices is not en-
couraging, and those who were most
hopeful month ago are still waiting,
not SO hopefully, for the expected re-
covery. DISTINCTIONS to recovery
are not to be sought primarily in
the investment or the money market,
but in the industrial reection after the
unnatural expansion of demand and
prices last year. 1t is a striking fact
that the only great industry which is
now rapidly gaining in business is the
one in which prices have been general
ly cut down to last years lowest fig
ures, and the boot and shoe makers
had a reason for hesitation in the
prices of leather, which still average
six per cent. higher than a year ago,
though hides are 13 per cent. lower,
having again declined the past week
about three per cent.
If the manufacturers get narrow
profits or none, they are least doing
business which will keep most of the
works in operation. The woolen mills
have different conditions, and with
prices already below last years lowest
average and wool 5.3 per cent higher
than it was then, they are not getting
business to keep works in operation.
Sales of wool were the smallest in
any week for years.
A sharp decline in the prices of cot
tongoods is the comment of mills on
rising cotton. Goods now average
lower than since May, 1895, having de-
clined Az per cent. for the weel-print
cloths to 219 cents, which is only six
teenth above the lowest price on rec
ord. The accumulation of goods in the
face of slack and rapidly diminishing
demand has brought the closing of one
of the largest mills, and others are con-
sidering.
The iron industry shows but a slight
average decline in prices as combina-
tions still insist upon the highest prices
of last year, and the demand is natur-
ally curtailed. Quotations are decep-
tive because lower prices are constantly
made to secure business But with ore
and coke combinations demanding high
figures, hesitation is inevitable. Minor
metals change little, but aluminium, by
misprint quoted here enormously last
week, sells at Soc.
Speculation in cotton has caught
short sellers in trouble and just be-
cause they thought prices must go
lower, the shorts are forced to put
them up. Such rise may go on with
neither the government report of last
week nor the fall in goods and closing
of mills, give reason to suspect more
than speculative rise.
The market in wheat has been weak,
though rather stagnant, but the weight
of facts is felt, as western receipts for
three weeks of March have been $685.
4S2 bushels, against 6,624, 929 last year.
Atlantic exports, flour included, show
decrease, amounting to 4,04S, ,064 bush
els for three weeks, against 5,0O7, 100
last year.
The movement of corn continues very
large and prices have declined one cent
| for cash.
A trou ublesome feature of the situa-
tion is the stringency in commercial
loans, not because of scarcity of money,
but because banks are disturbed by
! failures of some Importance.