The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-21

TO 1T, Since Buyi Tear Ago was Done
in SO Unbusine-si way-CIosing of
Wooden MiIIs-Cotton Rises and Goods
Decline Grain Movements - Western
Observation-Disclosures Failures.
New York, March 20.-R. G. Dun &
Co.'S Weekly Review Of Trade, which
ISSUES tomorrow, will say:
Movement toward better things Is
still the exception. There is better bus
mess in shoes and small industries and
there has been a squeezing of short sell
Prs in cotton. But the general tendency
Of industries and prices is not encourag-
Ing and those who were most hopeful
a month ago are still waiting, not so
hopefully, for the expected recovery.
Causes Of continued depression are not
wanting. Bad weather has cut off
much business, especially in country
districts. Some failures of consequence
have caused especial caution The root
Of the business is that in many depart
ments, men bought more and produced
more when prices were mounting and
everybody was rushing to buy last year,
than they have yet been able TO sell.
That the buying was of a nature TO
anticipate actual consumption for many
months, they were fully warned, but
they had more hope than observation
and went on piling up goods. Some are
engaged today in the same hopeful an
tcipation of a demand which has not
yet appeared.
The wooden mills, with prices already
reduced below last years lowest aver
age, and wool So per cent higher than
Ii was then, are not getting business
enough to keep works in operation.
Clothiers have taken many foreign
goods; they have failed to market all
they produced last fall, and they have
to carry a host of retailers whose stocks
are not yet sold. Sales of wool We're the
smallest of any week for years and in
three weeks of March have been $685.,
900 pounds, of which 4,75l 900 We're do
nestle, against 17105,876 in the same
weeks of 1892, of which II, SS6,626 were
Domestic. The demand for Women'S
dress goods is still quite fair.
4 sharp decline in the prices of cot
ton goods is the comment of mills on
rising cotton. Goods now average low
er than since May, 1895, having declined
AZ per cent for the week, print cloths to
21a cents, which is only a sixteenth
above the lowest price on record. The
accumulation of goods in the face of
slack and rapidly diminishing demand
has brought the closing of one of the
leargest mills, and others are consid-
ering.
The iron industry shows but slight
average decline in prices. as combina-
tons still insist upon the highest prices
Of last year. and the demand is natural
Il curtailed. Quotations are deceptive,
because lower prices are constantly
made to secure business, but with ore
ard coke combinations demanding high
figures. hesitation is inevitable. Minor
metals change little, but aluminium, by
nisprint quoted here enormously last
week, sells at cents.
Speculation in cotton has caught
short sellers in trouble and just because
they thought prices must go lower the
shorts are forced to put them up. Such
a rise may go on without regard to sup
plies or demand. but neither the govern
ment report OF last week, nor the fall in
goods and the closing of mills, give rea-
son to expect more than a speculative
rise.
The market in wheat has been weak,
though rather stagnant, but the weight
thra weeks of March have been $3.50, 4S1
bushels, against 5,624,929 last year. At
Iantic exports. fiuor included. also show
a decrease amounting TO 4.0iS.064 BUSH
els for three weeks, against 5,097,01S last
year. The movement of corn continues
very large and prices have declined l
cent for cash.
Failures for the week were 261 in the
United States, against 27S last year, and
80 in Canada, against So last year.
RRADSTREET'S TRADE REVIEW.
New York, March 2O-Bradstreet's to-
morrow will say:
General trade throughout the United
States for the first quarter of 1896 is dis
appointing. When the Improvement in
industrial and commercial lines between
March and September, 1895, is recalled,
occurring, as it did, two years after the
panic Of 1898, reason would Seem to
have been behind the confidence that
the current calendar year would bring
q general revival But the most favor
able reports at this time are those which
declare the volume of business only
equal to, and in a few instances in eX-
cess of. che like total one year ago. The
fact that interior merchants are buying
more freely in Missouri, Kansas, Okla
homa. where the snow and rains have
prepared the soil for the crops, consd-
tuteS almost the only favorable an
nOUncement for the week. In almost
ell other parts of the country, east OF
the Mississippi stormy weather has
tended to check the volume of business
and still further restrict mercantile col