The San Francisco call., 1898-07-02
BRADSTREET S REVIEW.

NEW YORK, July 1.-Bradstreet's to-inor- row will say: In a period usual devoted largely to stock taking, and with holiday and midsummer influences making for a narrow and unrestricted trade, there Is little that is novel to be found regarding current distribution. The first half of the year closed with very satis- factory showing in many lines of trade, as evil denced by the returns of bank clearances. rail- read earnings, reports as to the consumptive and distributive demands, and last but not least, by that infallbe barometer. of the mer- cantile world-bus1ness failures.
 Hafbingers of the future are found in the. cereals, but of cotton, fruits and most products or agriculture, and a continued heavy foreign demand for American products.
 Few important events chronicled' this week in the business world. The semi-annual shut t-down of many industrial concerns, par ucularly those in iron and steel and glass and some textile. manufacturing concerns, has been announced to occur in the first week of July, but this mas been without much effect upon the prices of those staples. Advces from the West, indeed. lead to the belief that this shutdown, in some cases, may not at all this year, while in others the time devoted to repairs and stock taking will be considerably aprogated. The situation in iron is rather a mixed one, most complaints coming from the Vest It is significant, however. that the fall in coast rail- road rates has been credited with improving demand for iron and steel for export and con siderable orders have been already booked, notably some steel rails for Egypt and Mexico, while orders for 15,000 tons are reported re- fused on account of time limits set. .Plgiron and steel rails reflect the lesse ened activity in
  to the ability of the pigirOn makers to control production and the next two weeks will prob ably be full of interest to the iron trade gen. orally. The tone of the wheat magket con- tinues bearsh. notwithstanding that the world s visible supply. has decreased B, FOG, GOO in two weeks, and that the probabilities are that yis- ible stocks of old wheat August will be as low, If not flower, than last years, which were the smallest on record for seven years. A heavy falling off in the condition of the Kansas wheat crop Is indicated
 Rather less steadness in prices is observable, most cereals pork, lard cotton and several makes of pigiron being lower for the week, while the list of advances is exceedingly small wocls, hides and heavy leather, coffee, sugar and print cloths, copper and lead. large distribution of bleached cottons at price con- sessions has been feature and the demand for fireworks and. flags this year is coneeded to be heavier in advance of past years.
 Cereals still move abroad. in quantities un- precedented for the time of year. Wheat ship ments for the week aggregate 4,I6,40 bushels, against 3, I9s. 4I9 last week and 2.IIS,S4S in this week year ago, 2.60T096 two years ago. Z, GOT, ,03l in 1885 and lS1O. 2OG in 1894.
 In spite of the unfavorable future there were fewer failures, smaller liabilities and conse-. quently smaller assets this year than in any. previous year for four years past
 Business failures, number 6429,s per cent fewer than year ago. 15 per cent less than in 1893. Liabilities, too, are smaller. Rggregat- ing $72 120,341, 23 per cent smaller than last year. 3l per cent smaller than tive years ago. 9.5 per cent smaller than in 1895 and 57 per cent below those of 1893,
 Business failures in the Dominion of Canada for the six months of the present year make a decidedly good showing. They number S13 involving s, 799, ,643, a decrease of 4 per cent in number and in liabilities as compared with last year, and making still better comparison