The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-21
Increased Industrial Activity, II
Spite of War.
PROSPERITY IN THE WEST
CAUSED BY GOOD CROPS AND
GOOD PRICES.
Several Large Contracts, Held Back
By the War, Have Now Been
Placed-Heavy Marketing of
Crops Produces a Demand For
Rails and Cars.

New York, May 2O.-R. G. Dun &
Co.'S weekly review of trade tomorrow
will say: Growing accustomed to wal
possibilities, which are mostly far from
probabilities of evil, and finding the ma
ton moving along steadily in its indus
tries, people are grasping the idea that
1t is throwing away some months OF
active and profitable life to wait until
war clouds have passed. Western pros
perity has so greatly overbalanced the
timidity of eastern capital that actual
business done increases; railroad earn
ings promise better for May than a
month ago for April, and payments
through clearing houses for the week
in May Show a gain of SO per cent over
last year and 10 per cent over 1892
while a month ago the increase over
last year was 1876 per cent, and, COM
pared with 1892, there was a decrease
of ~ per cent.
Several large contracts, kept back for
some weeks because of hostilities, have
now been placed, and instead of works
closing or reducing force, returns show
the starting of some works long idle
and increase of force and of hours al
others. Government work occupies
many establishments, but it counts for
little compared with other demands.
lie Acy VI the the DTOS-
perity of the west, which, altogether,
unprecedented marketing of breadstuffs
has caused, with the prospect of good
crops to come. These prospects and ac-
tual receipts of wheat, amounting TO
1916, 716 bushels for the week, against
2,4S9. 1853 bushels last year, with ad-
VanceS also in other grain and cattle,
have produced demand for rails, cars,
car materials, agricultural implements,
&c nd oh Il oil Il.
which was not anticipated from eastern
indications. Exports of wheat do not
diminish, but in three weeks, from At
lantic points, flour included, have been
7,955,5S6 bushels, against 4.77S,724 BUSH
els last year, and from Pacific ports,
l, 1888, 12S bushels, against 610,637 bushels
last year.
The price of May wheat fell 41sc on
Saturday, rose &c to Tuesday and closed
SIC higher for the week.
In iron, notwithstanding the greatest
output known, the demand has caused
some advance in Bessemer pig, with
only slight decline in the price of gray
forge at Pittsburg, but full quotations
are obtained at Chicago and Philadel-
phia. In bars and sheets the markets
are dull, but at the west are strongly
sustained by demands for car building
tin plate manufacture and other uses
Ii p41NCS eSllO SlIuCluIdl ltTIIlS all the
works are fully employed and generally
crowded for months ahead. One con-
tract for 5000 tons armor plate for
Great Britain has been taken by a firm
far inland, with another small quantity.
showing that the export demand, in
spite of higher ocean freights, is not
yet arrested. Tin is sustained at S14.5 so
by large consumption, and lake copper
at II cents, in spite of American pro-
duction amounting to 22,909 tons for
the month, 10 per cent larger than last
year, with a slight decrease in the
production of foreign mines.
The textile works are doing rather
better. Even the cotton mills, in spite
of the overproduction for some of large
Importance, have recently started
again, and print cloths are six
teenth higher. Numerous wooden mills
have been pushed to new activity by
government orders, and prices for a
few grades of goods are better, with a
stronger tone in the market generally,
although some mills of Importance have
stopped, as their orders for the season
have run out
While sales of wool are small, $685.
900 pounds for the three weeks past.
against q, 1868, 700 pounds last year. the
manufacturers have ample stocks, al
though some are obliged by government
order to seek in the market grades of
wool which they had not expected to
require.
Failures for the week have been $50
in the United States, against 26S last
year and 10 in Canada, against 80 last
year.