The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-09-23
DIFFERENT NOW.
q. g. Dun & Co. Says Higher
Prices Cause Shrinkage
In the Demand, Other Things
Being Equal.
AN EXCEPTIONALYEA
Wages Have Kept Ahead of
Products.
Hence the Continued Advance
In Commodities.
AN EXCEPTIONALYEAR

New York, Sept. Or. C. Dun &
Cos Weekly Review of Trade says:
The reaction in the stock market IS
not a sign of anything outside that
market, but has set many to look for
signs OF a reaction elsewhere. Such
signs have been hard to find. 1t has
been for months a wonder that the de-
mand for products was sustained at
rates exceeding past consumption in
any year, Notwithstanding the general
rise in prices. But the demand does not
appear to abate and the rise in prices
continues. A partial explanation is
that scarcely any class of products di-
rectly consumed by individuals has adj
vaEced as much as the wages and en-
plOyment of labor. With more hands
at work more hours and at 10 to Is per
cent higher wages, the gain in purchaS-
ing power has been quite beyond the
rise of per cent in boots and shoes this
year, 8 per cent in leather, So per cent
in wooden goods, or 100 per cent in wool
and even beyond the rise of II per cent
in cotton goods, mainly due to the rise
of 13 per cent in cotton. But products
used in manufacturing and transport
ing have advanced much more because
of the enormous increase in the volume
of business done, and in anticipated
business for the future. Higher prices
cause shrinking demand, other things
being equal, but this year other things
are not equal.
Wheat exports fall little below last
years, but in three weeks, flour in
cluded, have been S,656,877 bushels from
Atlantic ports against 1928, 3S1 bushels
last year and /, 021, 1913 bushels from Pa
cific ports against 907, 961 bushels last
year. But western receipts have been
PIP, 759, S52 bushels, against %, 099 397
bushels last year, and even more i'm
pressiYe are the receipts of 1855, 932
bushels corn against II. III, 4S3 bushels
last year, and the exports of 9,201 427
n
year. Prices moved little either way
until Friday, when a sharp advance
made the weeks gain u cent. Cotton
has risen to 6.62 cents, but it comes for
ward more freely than in years of max
imum crops.
When men pay SO to IS per ton more
than the latest quoted price for iron
products in order to get early deliveries,
it is because delay is threatened on
works or railways or bridges, vessels
or machinery, promising a net profit
many times the cost of a small fraction
of the material. In such circumstances
as in much of the construction and ex-
pansion now going on, present cost
counts for little compared with the
earning power of the finished product
in a time like this. BeSSemer and an
thracite pig are unchanged, grey forge
at Pittsburg and Chicago and southern
iron are higher, bars 81 per ton higher
and plates 50 per ton, and rails 81 per
ton. Most of the business is for next
year, with premiums paid for more
speedy delivery.
Negotiations for consolidation of Fall
River cotton mills have developed a
contest between those faVoring local or
non-local management with a new SELL
ing arrangement announced for other
plain goods as well as for print cloths.
Prices of prints have been cut one
quarter cent for indigo blues, but 9TH
erwise the demand is strong.
The American Wooden company has
announced that the whole production
of all it's worsted mills has been sold,
which may give unexpected opportuni-
ties for other mills. It's contracts for a
great quantity of new machinery indi-
cate a belief that within its field the
demand for goods will much exceed the
capacity of its works. Prices have been
firm with wool stronger since the gen
eral advance at London. Sales at the
three chief markets were 13, 44S, 800
pounds.
Failures of the week have been 154
in the United States against 173 last
year and in Canada Is, against Is last
year.