Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-27
DUN'S REVIEW OF BUSINESS
Volume Of Trading Slowly but Steadily
Rising,
IRON SHOWS A MATERIAL ADVANCE
Furnaces Are stiu behind with or.
dcrs, but Prospect of Catching
I'D is Good-Snlcs of Wool
Again Heavy.

NEW YORK. May 26.-R. G. Dun & Co. s
/ Weekly Review Of Trade will say tomor-
/ row.
/ There is some fear that has no other
source than the habit of fear. Men have
! found for many years disaster treading on
| the heels of apprehension that they lack faith
/ in good things present and to come. Every
year there is worry about short crops and
/ yet crops grow larger. The specter OF mon-
etary trouble haunts men who know that the
country is strong beyond any need Promot-
/ ing methods alarm men who are already
/ quite aware that it is only needful to put
promoted stocks in a class by themselves.
/ But all the time the volume of business is
| rising. This weeks payments through the
clearing house are 621 per cent larger than
| last year and 6S per cent larger than in
/ 1892. For the month thus far the daily av-
erage is 5I9 per cent larger than last year
and 66.4 per cent larger than in 1892. More
over, this week and every other brings larger
wages to many and increased purchasing
Ipower, and the demand for products is conse-
quently expanding in all branches of con-
| sumption.
! The rise in Bessemer pig iron to s17.65 at
! Pittsburg; So in two weeks in grey forge to
$1,000 in anthracite number 81 here to
$3.50, and in local and southern iron at
Chicago results directly from the fact that
supplies are for the time less than the de-
mand.
Many furnaces are in haste to begin work.
some succeeding but others hindered by diff
Guilty of getting prompt deliveries of needed
parts of machines or prompt supplies of
ore and fuel. The natural remedy that new
orders now call for less work than was done
| in April or March is for the time hidden by
engagement of nearly all concerns for
months ahead. The largest and best works
are catching up with their orders, though
much behind and obliged to refuse many
while others are entering the field. 1t is
proof of an astonishing demand that after
nearly five months this congestion continues
and the rise in prices, including advances
| of 81 per ton in plates and bars, is not
| forced or unnatural.
Minor metals have followed London so
| long that tin sticks at $25.65, though the
stocks are large and the demand is remark
ably poor, and lead at $4.45, though the de-
| mand is slow, while copper weakens to 1S1a
cents for Lake, British statistics Indicating
fall of nearly quarter in consumption for
| four months this year, compared with last
| The heavy sales of wool, 30,954, 900 pounds
at the three chief markets in three weeks,
| against 2,7S0,300 for the same week in 1897,
when the disastrous speculation OF that year
had begun to turn, and Ia, III, l5O In 1872,
are mostly to spectators, as manufacturers
are doing scarcely anything. Weeks ago
they held that prices were too high, even
after some decline, for the prices at which
goods could be sold. But western and east
ufacturers will be forced to buy at such
prices as they may fix and are taking large
quantities.
The cotton mills have fairly good de-
mand after considerable advance in prices
of goods and are producing largely. The
material has been steady at ga cents.
with no ground TO expect much change, and
the best reports indicate decrease in acre
age of per cent.
Wheat advanced per cent, but lost nearly
all the gain on Friday. Western receipts
have fallen to about half last years and
exp orts in four weeks from Atlantic and
Pacific ports have been 1S,59O,16 bushels,
-four included, against l13,691,sS2 last year,
while from northern lake ports 7926,OS7
bushels have gopesout this year. But men
forget that while foreign demand, II not
as large as it was last year, with famine
impending, is much larger than in the same
weeks of 1897, when wheat exports were only
s. 7O4 1884 bushels, and forget also that the
Letter speculation caused wholly un-
natural May movement last year.
Corn exports, though only lO,267662 BUSH
els, against 2O,2S5097 last year, were also
but 091 in 1897. :.
Failures for the week have been l42 IN
the United States, against 245 last year, ana
sixteen in Canada, against twenty-one last
wear,