Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-12-01
TRADE REVIEW.
Dun y Co.'s Observations on the Situation
In Business Circles

New York, Nov. 2S.-R. G. Dun & Co.
in their weekly review of trade say:
When the rush of orders after the cleo
ton slackened. many began to think busi-
ness dwindling. But subsistence of de-
ferred orders is not decrease of business.
disappointment is observed in the iron and
steel Industry because various combina-
tons have been and are still retarding or
ders by prices which buyers believe cannot
be maintained, and the same is true in
boots and shoes and in few branches OF
textile goods. But business is on the whole
enlarging and the employment of many
more hands will extend purchasing power.
The settlement of the window glass con-
troversN, starting many thousand hands,
and the collapse of some important iron
combinations with the same effect, give
promise of more business. Broadly speak
ing the gain has been greater than anybody
expected. and 1t ia not surprising If a small
part Of 1t Is in excess of the present con-
Stunning demand.
reports from all parts of the country
show clearly the enlargement of trade, not
ut oil points In the same branches but
everybody helped by a more confident feel
ing. Monetary difficulties have vanished
as If by magic, and banks with an uncom-
fortably large supply of idle money are
hunting borrowers, as the borrowers We're
recently hunting lenders. Enormous gains
in bank deposits, s37,O0O,O0O in two weeks
indicate something of the amount of funds
recently boarded.
Wheat has risen over cents for the
week without material change in foreign
advices, which have been on the whole
less stimulating. Corn has sympathized
with wheat only little and Is coming
forward freely. The most important factor
in the wheat market is that the visible
supplies do not gain as much as has been
expected.
wool was and is still bought largely
for speculation. and earlier purchasers are
unloading. but the mills are not yet doing
much more than in October. A few more
have started. but there is scarcely more de-
mand apparent for staple goods.
'"The boot and shoe industry is still hin
dercd by the general refusal of dealers to
pay the advanced prices demanded by man.
ufacturers, except for the limited quanti-
ties which are Immediately required and
while most manufacturers are working on
orders taken weeks ago at lower prices,
which Will keep them busy for some weeks
to come. very little new business is COM
Ing. No further advance of Importance
has been made in leather, and the market
for hides has sharply reacted, so that the
average of prices is slightly lower than
November 12
1.-THE collapse of the nail combinat ton and
probably Of the beam combination and con-
siderable reduction in quota lions for nails
and beams, give reason to look for a
larger demand for products of iron and
steel, but at present the sales against
speculative purchases made some time ago
are depressing prices, and Bessemer pig
has sold at sl2.25, and according to some
| reports little lower at Pittsburgh The
demand for such products as are not con-
trolled by the combinations is somewhat
increasing, but by no means as rapidly as
expected.
Failures for the week have been 300
in the United States. against 279 last year
| and IS in Canada. against AZ last year."