The morning news., 1897-01-01
BUSINESS CONTINUES BAD.
THE YEAR JUST CLOSED FAR FROM
SATISFACTORY IN TRADE.

SATISFACTORY IN TRADE.
The List of Failures For 1896 the
Longest of Any Year Since Such
Records Have Been Kept With the
single Exception of 1S93-The To-
JaI Number For 1896 1912 and in
1898 1880.
New York, Dec. S1.-Bradstreets, Jan. ?,
will say: General trade has been rather
more quiet and this week proves one of the
dullest of the dull season which has fol-
lowed the fortnight of revived demand
early in November. The uneasiness last
week caused by northwestern bank fall
ures is continued by similar embarrass-
ments at Chicago and Minneapolis. These
bank failures seem to be the outcome OF
conditions originating in the banks, and
not due to the situation of general trade.
Unreasonable weather. the making Of
inventories, and the customary absence Of
demand in wholesale lines, have combined
20 produce more than the usual holiday
dullness. More favorable reports include
heavy exports of flour and general mer-
chandise from Tacoma to China and Ia
pan, the receipt at Chicago of a satisfac-
tory amount of orders for dry goods for
spring delivery and an increased total vol
ume of business in 1896 among st. Louis
shoe manufacturers and jobbers, and job
bers of dry goods, as compared with 1895.
Manufacturers of woollen goods are
buying raw material only to cover orders
received. Large stocks Of unsold print
,1n he tn a
merchants in leading staple lines at the
larger distributing centers do not antici-
pate an early improvement in business.
prices of oats, petroleum, cotton ana
print cloths are lower and buyers of west
ern and southern brands of pig iron report
a cut of rs cents ton.
prices are unchanged and comparative
~ firm for -four, pork, lard. sugar. anthra-
cite coal and steel billets Since the
break in iron and steel prices. consumers
appear inclined to await developments.
The list of business failures throughout
the United States for the calendar year
1896 is. with one exception, the longest
since records of this character have been
compiled. 1t remains for the panic year
1893 to present a larger total, and for
that year and for the year 1884, which was
also visited by financial disaster, to fur
those who failed in business.
THE total number of failures during 1896
is 10. .112, an increase of 16 per cent COM
pared with 1895, in which year business
embarrassments increased ? per cent,
contrasted with the year before.
In 1894. which was marked by extreme
depression in commercial and industrial
circles, the total number of failures fell
eff sharply, fully is per cent. from the
record in 1893. when the aggregate was 15-
$50, the largest total ever reported for a
calendar year.
During 1896 the aggregate assets of
those embarrassed in business were near
~ GO per cent of the total liabilities the
significance of which lies in its contrast
with the record of a year ago, when the
proportion of assets to liabilities was So
per cent, and to the exhibit for 1894, when
the proportion was 50 per cent.
The extraordinary heavy total of bus
mess embarrassments in the panic year,
1898. was almost paralleled in 1896 not
withstandng a falling off of nearly one
fifth in number in 1894. The $247, 600 LA
blities of those falling during the past
twelve months is challenged only by cor
responding totals in 1894 and 1898, re-
spectively $2lS,0Q0O00 and $i02, 600. The
aggregate of $14S,000,000 of assets is an in
crease over the corresponding total one
year ago of fully 70 per cent, is $l40O0,OOO
larger than.the like total in 1894, and has
Dttn GACtNueu only ny the tOAdl assets VI
failing traders in the panic year 1898.
New York, Dec. 31-R. G. Dun & Co.,
in their weekly review of trade Saturday,
Jan. 2, will say: There have been more
commercial failures in 1896 than in any
previous year except 1898, and about IA $3.50
against i3,l97 last year. with liabilities Of
about $225, 900, 600, against S173. 196060 last
year, an increase in number of about u
per cent, and in liabilities of % per cent
The year closes with an epidemic Of
failures, mainly at the west, and in banks
and loan and trust companies or concerns
dependent on them The action of clear
ing houses in various places indicates no
want of confidence, and several banks
which have failed win be enabled to pay
in full, but disclosures of unsoundness in
few widely known institutions, in the
abnormal state of popular feeling after
an excited contest on monetary issues, has
caused distrust and suspicion where it is
frequently undeserved.
There has been no monetary pressure
to cause trouble, nor have important
western products declined in value There
has evidently been too liberal assistance
a..