Omaha daily bee., 1897-05-02

regular order cf business 70 il1uidate an in
debtedncss and because II was cteaper than ex-
change How much Of thist Contradiction was
apology and recrimination Tor the breaking OF
the exchange agreement, can only be estl-
mated. The motives Tor the agreement
were said to be to keep up the prices OF
exchange until certain stbtit supplies were dis
posed Of. and the other hand to avoid the
adverse effect OF gold exports some heavy
railroad bonding operations that are in process
OF completion. The doubt as 10 gold shipmg nts
being in response to the exhaustion of our credit
balances abroad grows out Of the extraordinarily
heavy eNcess of merchandise exports over
tmport1 for the nine months Of the fiscal year,
an excess aggregating SS2S, on, coo. These who
argue that the balance OF credits has turned
against US assert that this. GNccss Of exports
must be largely discounted on account OF under
valuations CT importatiops to cyadc customs
duties. They point to the heavy importatiOns of
the last two months in anticipate N, and the
heavy obligations incurred for stil heavier Inn
portations to come before the tarim goes
into effect the large volume Of our securities
that has to be paid for; the charges we must
pay to foreigners FOR ocean carrying trade;
the credits carried abroad by American travel
ers to be expended there; the withdrawal OF
foreign capital which placed in loans IT,
the New York money market and payment Of
dividends and Interest on American securities
stin held by forcigners-ali these are said TO
amply account for the wipng out of the trade
balance in our favor and to furnish legitimate
exchange demand fer gold shipments. on the
other hand 1t Is cameS that will, sterling
change on the basis of Si.S7h for demand there
due to the payment of something equivalent to
n premium growing out Of demand for special
causes austria mas sold number OF treasury
bills in London which are payable in gold. thus
increasing her claims London in much the
same way our government did to replen-
ish the treasury sold reserve. Japan
and Russia are also earnest seekers
for gold for currency purposes. Paris exchange
on London is at a point to require gold ship
ments frCm London, owing to heavy sales in
London of securities held in Paris. That this
reflected demand for gold Is an element in the
explanation OF our gold shipment is reasonable
to supp5se At all events, the fact that Sc Al
opo gold has been shipped to Europe during the
week and that SlCGO 900 more is already an
nounced for next week. has discouraged trans
actions in stocks and has unsettled the minds of
market into condition OF stagnation and has
produced a declining tendency of nearly all val
ues. The backwardness of business generally
and the continued absence of demand for the
large stocks of Idle money held further
influences to deprcss the market with IL largc
surplus reserve of gold in the United States this
year and an unusually large stock Of the metal
In the country outside the treasury, and with
OF expenditures On account OF heavy customs
receipts confidence is expressed that the i'll
effects of the outward gold movement will
be severe long continued, even ~ the eX-
ports are considerably larger in pro, o,,ortiGn and
continued for quite time In the stock mar
ket the stasnancy has restricted the changes IL,
the standard shares to narrow limits either way.
The coalers are down a fraction to 3Ts per cent,
the latter for New Jersey Central; Rubber pre-
ferred 1B per cent Western Unicn 2I4 per cent:
and Lacledc Gas ga per cent.
The bond market was devoid OF feature during
the week. and prices of the leading issues show
hut little net changes. The main trend Of values
toward a lower plane. in sympathy with
the losses are not extreme except in a few
usually neglected mortgages.
The following the closing quotations {
the leading stocks of the New York exchange