The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-03-21
Expected Improvement Does
Not MaterialiZe.
VOLUME or TRADE SMALL
At Best it Only Equals That OF
a Year Ago.
PRODUCTION EXCEEDS DEMAND
The General Tendency of Industries
and Prices is Not Encouraging and
Continued Depression is
Probable.

New York, March 20.-R' y. Dol q
Co.'S. Weekly Ryeiew Of Trade which
issues tomorrow will say:
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
encouraging, and those who were most
hopeful a month ago are still waiting,
not so hopefully for the expected re-
coverv. Causes of continued depres-
sion are not wanting. Some failures
of consequence have caused especial
caution.
The root of the business is that in
many departments men bought more
and produced more, when prices We're
mounting and everybody was rushing
to buy last year, than they have yet
been able to sell. That the buying was
of nature to anticipate actual con-
sumption many months, they We're full
ly warned, but they had more hope
than observation, and went on ping
up goods. Some are engaged to-day IN
the same hopeful anticipation OF q
demand which has not yet appeared.
A sharp decline in the prices of cot
ton goods is the comment of mills on
rising cotton. Goods now average
lower than since May, 1895, having de-
c1ined AZ per cent for the week, print
cloths to 21a cents, which is only six
teenth above the lowest price on re-
cord. The accumulation of goods in
the face of slack and rapidly diminish
ing demands has brought the closing
down of one of the largest mills, and
others are considering the question Of
stopping. The iron industry shows
but slight average decline in prices.
as combinations still insist upon the
highest prices Of last year, but demand
is naturally curtailed.
Speculation in cotton has caught
short sellers in trouble and just be-
cause they thought prices must go low
er, the shorts are forced to put them up
Such a rise may go on without regard
to supplies or demand. but neither the
government report of last week nor
the fall in goods, and closing of mills
give reason to expect more than a
speculative rise The market in wheat
has been weak though rather stag
nant, but the weight Of facts is felt
as Western receipts for three weeks of
March have been $3.50, 4s1 bushels Or
gainst 5,624,92g last year. Atlaptie
exports, flour included,) also show a
decrease amounting TO 4,048,064 bush
els for three weeks against 5,097 DIS
last year. The movement Of corn con-
tinues very large, and prices have de-
clined cent for cash.
Failures for the week were POI in
the United States. 27s last year. and 40
in Canada, against 35 last year.
BRADsTREET's REVIEW.
New York, March 20.---Bradstreet's
tomorrow will say:
General trade throughout the Uni
ted States for the first quarter of 1896
is disappointing. When the improve
ment in industrial and commercial
lines between March and September,
1895, is recalled, occurring as it did
two years after the panic of 1893, rea-
son would seem to have been behind
the confidence that the current cal
endar year would bring general re
yiyal. But the most favorable reports
at this time are those which declare
the volume of business only equal TO,
in few instances in excess of, the
like total one year ago. The fact that
interior merchants are buying more
freely in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma
and parts of Nebraska, where the
snow and rain have prepared the soil
for the crops constitutes almost the
one favorable announcement for the
week. In almost all other parts of the
country, east of the Mississippi, stor-
my weather has tended to check the
volume of business and still further
restrict mercantile collections, which
have now been exceptionally slow for
more than a month.
WEEKLY BANK CLEARINGS.
New York, March 20.--Total bank
clearings for the United States $685.
888, sol; per cent increase, ID; q total
for the United States exclusive of New
York, 1923 1929; per cent increase,
"a. Total for Canada, s17, 599, 219; per
cent decrease, 3.3.