Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-10-28
nuN.s COMMERCIAL REvlEw.


q Natural and Desirable Period OF Quiet
Succeeds the Heaviest Buying Ever
known, In Which the Rush for Orders
Went Beyond All Distribative Demand
The Outlook EDcouragIng-Ths Failures.
New YORK, Oct 2S.-R. 6. Dun &
Co.'S weekly review of trade saya in
its issue to-day:
After the heaviest buying ever known
| in many branches during September
| and the first half of October. it was
both natural and desirable that more
| quiet period should give time for test
| ing the size and temper of retail trade
and for distributing part of the enor-
NOUS quantities bought. In textile
good the rush of orders went far be-
vond all distributive demand in Au-
gust, and represented great replenish-
nent of stocks, and the similar rush
for goods has been correspondence
| great in other lines during the past
| two months.
In iron and steel and in boots and
shoes there was danger of specula-
| tive initiation in prices such as was
seen in 1895, but it has been avoided
apparently, for this season, by the
solid sense of leading men who regard
a time of comparative quiet as essen
tial to the coming and permanence of
prosperity in their lines. As the buy
| ing for replenishment is partly salts
| fed and diminishes, there is some de-
crease in the volume of transactions.
though at the same time the working
force has further increased, the wages
of labor have been, in numerous cases,
advanced and the foundation laid
more broadly every week for larger
buying and business hereafter.
The iron industry waits, because
possible production for the year has
been practically ordered, while neither
buyers nor sellers regard contrac is at
current prices for next years business
as quite safe. Bessemer pig is a shade
weaker at 5000 and gray forge at
$50 at Pitts burgh, while billets are
hard to get at any price, owing to the
stoppage of only two works of moder-
ate size, so much has the current de-
mand come to exceed production.
Sales of warrant pig iron at Philadel-
phia IS cents below is not in fact a de-
cline. New business in finished prod
ucts is almost of necessity smaller,
since manufacturing works are nearly
all full for months ahead the plate
mills at the west so full that they
could not compete at all for three
Rockefeller vessels.
The demand for bars is the best for
a long time and contracts for the East
River bridge, for numerous new build
ings and railway bridges are still pend
ing.
The coke output has risen to las, 03S
tons weekly and is the largest known
for years. Anthracite coal is sold at
S4.l5 in New York harbor or 30 cents
below the circular, and conservative
estimates make the years output 49,
500, 900 tons. The only noteworthy
feature in minor metals is sensational
collapse in lead of 80 points with sales
of 5000 tons.
The severe decline in cotton to 6. IL
cents from S25 cents on August 80 Is
due to widespread confidence in the
estimates in yield. A natural conse-
quence is the fall of print cloths to
the lowest point in the history of the
market-2.37 cents, and cotton goods
generally are easy. with limited sales
of staples. All wooden goods are firm,
but there is no new business of note
for spring outside of dress goods.
Sales of wool have largely decreased
again at Boston, amounting to only
8, O4S, 900 pounds, against over IS, 0o0, 900
pounds the last week in September
and the week there was the dullest
since January z.
The produce market acted with as
little apparent reason as usual. Al
though Atlantic exports of wheat were
2, $50, 6O7 bushels. flour included, and
for three weeks of October 1O,0S4, COS
bushels, against 7,742, 214 last year
with western receipts not 500, 00C
bushels larger, the price advanced "a.
Corn, with smaller receipts and ex-
ports-barely a quarter of last year
declined small fraction.
Failures for the week were 224 in
the United States, against 274 last
year, and SO in Canada, against go last
year.