The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-29
WEEKLY REVIEW OF TRADE
MORE BUSINESS FIRST MONTH OF
 YEAR THAN AFFECTED.

MORE BUSINESS FIRST MONTH OF
 YEAR THAN EXPECTED.
 To onset This, However, it is Stated That the Improvement in Prices is Not as Satisfactory as Expccted-Cotton Manu- facture is More Difficult Than Any Other Big Shipments of Boots and Shoes.
 New York, Jan 2S.--R- G. Dun & Co. in their weekly review of trade will say: The first month of the new year has brought rather more increase In busi- ness but less improvement in prices than was expected. With payments through clearing houses 7.3 per cent. larger than in 1892, and probably the largest ever known in any month. with railroad earnngss 11.2 per cent larger than the best of past years, the fact that prices are very low only shows more clearly the increase in quanti- ties of products sold. Nor Is there any disposition to refuse orders, even at present prices; indeed, the competition of manufacturers seeking orders alone prevents rise. Most of them have all they can manage, many working night and day, and one great steel concern running on Sunday, but the works not yet filled with orders re seeking con- tracts at as low prices as have ever been made, indicating that even these are not entirely unprofltable. The set tlement of wages on 10 per cent. ad- vance April for 100000 coal miners of the central region, with other changes. will tend toward a larger demand for products of all kinds, though also to- ward some increase in cost of manufac- ture.
 Wheat has been conspicuous, rising 5 cents for the week with 5b cents for May options. Western receipts have been 10059,O53 bushels in four weeks against 6,045,712 last year. but Atlantic exports have been 12,003,82S bushels in four weeks against 7,103,674 last year, and Pacific exports without Tacoma this week, 4,051, 583 bushels against s. 454, ,995 last year. So heavy an outgo, with wheat over $1 a bushel, and with - CCII SApOIlS lOl LiC 1Odl WCChS Cdooi- ling the extraordinary movement of last year, discloses the strength of foreign demand even better than current ac- counts of disappointing shipments from Argentine and poor prospects in Russia. Cotton has risen a sixteenth, nothwith- standing the strikes fin eastern mills and the official report of a decrease of 105 per cent. in British exports of cot ton goods last year.
 The cotton manufacture is in more difficulty than in any other, not merely because prices do not much improve, nor as yet the demand for goods, though < both are helped by the closing of many mills but largely because the nanu- facturers and workers have considered too little the rapidly growing produc tion at the south. Of late, also, the ex- port demand for goods has been re- stricted though much less than the de- mand for British goods. The woolen manufacture is doing well, fine worsted goods having opened at an advance of 20 per cent. over last year, and the large mills are constantly buying wool, even at current high prices, which irn- plies great confidence in the future, presumably based on larger orders than are publicly reported. Such purchases of wool have been frequent of late, even by mills supposed to- be supplied far ahead, and one Providence mill appears to have taken 250,000 pounds of worsted wool at Wheeling this week. Sales at three chief markets have been S,0S0, 100 pounds, and for four weeks 30,421, ,00, of which 21,367,720 were domestic, against 36 547,6 500 last year, of which 23,397 300 were domestic.
 Shipments of boots and shoes in Jan- uary have been S67, ,375 cases, 15 per cent. larger than last year, nearly 12 per cent larger than in 1895, and 42 per cent. larger than in 1892 While all accounts make new orders small the shops are not only putting out quantities beyond all precedent, but also buying leather in great quantities for future use. As nobody can be found who has paid higher prices than those quoted for boots and shoes, it is inferred that large future operations are based on such quotations. Leather is higher for glove grain and buff, and hides slightly high CT at Chicago. The iron manufacture is getting larger orders for finished products, which crowd many works al- most beyond their capacity, although some others are still in the market and keeping prices down.
 Failures for the week have been 342 in the United States against 331 last year, and 34 In Canada against 57 last year.
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