Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-04-08
BUSINESS OUTLOOK.
Passage of the Tariff Bill Does Not
Disturb Trade.
The Markets Arc SIN waiting and
Fluctuating = Special Reports
from Many Cifics-The
Failure Record.

New York, April Or. G. Dun & Co.,
IL their weekly review,of trade. say:
THE vote of the house in favor of a new
tariff bill has made no impression in bust
ness since il has been expected since No
Nember that some measure of the same
general character would become a law. II
the bill stands. with its provision making
new duties applicable April /. the chances
are that foreign imports and treasury re-
ceipts may be for kline considerably re-
stricIed.
THE markets are sttll waiting. some
sagging downward and others recovering.
There is much disposition to use the de-
clsion OF the supreme court against rail-
road combinations as an instrument for
depressing stocks. and yet the buying has
prevented decline exceeding 81 per share
and for trust stocks 20 cents per share.
The reports of railroad earrings for the
quarter have been somewhat encouraging,
the aggregate having been on roads with
IN the United States only 81 per cent.
smaller than last year. and the March re-
turns have been rather more favorable
than those for January or February.
The market for products has been VA
rtable and uncertain. Wheat closes a cent
lower chan last week. and the May option
has declined cents. The movement u
corn continues so large as to n7sterially az
feet the demand for wheat. Current trade
estimates regarding the wheat crop are
a little more favorable and are some
what more likely to prove reliable, as
the advance of the season makes the
condition of growing wheat better known.
Cotton has not changed in price, although
the floods in the southwe have doubtless
done much harm. The cotton and other
textile manufacturers are slowly gaining
in business, though print cloths and most
staple cottons remain unchanged in prices,
and restriction of output seems to have
given some relief to the market The buy
ing OF wool by mills is still a noteworthy
feature, being far in excess OF current con-
sumption but there is much greater vol
ume of transactions between dealers
Failures reported for the first quarter
of 1897 number 1892 against 4.0al last year.
with liabilities of S4S.007,9l1. against $751;
425IS5 last wear"
BradStreet's view
Bradstreet's says:
The course of general trade SHOWS some
Improvement. notwithstanding an almost
complete stoppage OF business in the south
Mississippi valley by washouts. overflows
and floods. The condition Of country roads
throughout the central western states and
the northwest is such as TO further delay
collections and check demand from in
terror merchants. Another drop is re-
corded in prices of BesseEer pig iron and
steel billets, and in wheat, -four and coal.
coffee and lard which is. in part. offset by
increased activity and higher prices for
wool and for woolens, for corn, oats, sugar
and petroleum.
Special reports from IS cities with ref
erence to revival of activity IN Industrial
lines indicate there are at work at those
centers probably not 10 exceed 100000 in
excess of the number employed in Novem-
Der last The increases are largely among
employees of manufacturers of wooden
goods. shoes. clothing, machinery, engines,
agricultural implements, bicycles. car
riages, furniture, iron. steel. glass ard
shipbuilding. Depression still exists among
some branches of the wooden goods indus
try, in coal mining and cotton goods man
ufacture"