The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-10-06
NOTHING LIKE 1T.
In All the Records of Failures
In Business
The List Has Never Been So
Small as It Is Now.
TOTAL FOR 8 MONTHS.
Is 1915 With Liabilities of
$65,S55,21S.
Fourteen Per Cent Smaller
Than In 1892.
TOTAL FOR 8 MONTHS.

New York, Oct 6.-Bradstreet's to-
morrow will say:
Statistics of failure point to contin-
ued trade Improvement and to a still
ebbing tide of business mortality. Fail
ure reports for the first and second
quarters of the year left little to be
desired showing, as they did, fewer fail
ures than in any but most favored
years. Returns by months showed fail
ures and liabilities in June only about
half what they were in January indicat-
ing that failures were well down to the
minimum possible when the friction in
ordinary business life was considered.
The present report of business failures
is, however, even better than any year
that has gone by in recent years and
the third quarter of the year 1899 apprO-
prfately enough shows the feWest fall
ures, the smallest liabilities and the
smallest proportion of assets to liabili-
ties of which there is any recent record.
AS indicative of this good showing be-
ing representative of existing cOndi-
tiOns, it is to be remarked that failures
and liabilities alike found their min
imum this year in September and CORE
spending totals of previous years show
that the month just closed comes near
to, if not actually possessing the rec
ord OF the smallest business enbarrass-
ments and liabilities.
There We're only 2,O26 failures, in
volving 1850 965 in liabilities and So
34O,2S6 in assets in the third quarter of
1899, a decrease of 16 per cent in num-
Der and of 48 per cent in liabilities
from the same quarter of last year,
which it is hardly necessary to add,
was a very good one for business gen
orally. Compared with the second
quarter of 1899 liabilities are IS per cent
smaller ana compared with the first
three months of this year liabilities are
less than half as heavy.
This tendency is practically universal
though a slight increase in number and
liabilities of failures in the west over
those in the second quarter is notice
able. Against this, however it is to be
recalled that comparisons with year
ago are satisfactory though business
conditions last year. in the west and
northwest were highly favorable.
Perhaps the most satisfactory show
ing of all is that made by the south
ern states, which have at least an
parently begun to share in the prospect
ty earlier noted in other sections of the
country. Confirmation of reports from
time to time of improving southern
trade conditions partly, of course, the
result of better cotton prices is found
in current failure returns. Growth in
population and consequently in the
number of traders is, apparently MAIN
ly responsible for the increased number
of failures throughout the territories
The total number of failures for the
nine months was only 7.015. q falling
off of 20 per cent from last year. of %
per cent from 1897 and of 81 per cent
from 1896, which year held the record
for the most numerous nine months
failures, exceeding even the panic year
1898.
AS regards liabilities, the total for the
period under review, $65, S55, 21S-is IS
per cent smaller than it was last year.
40 per cent smaller than in 1897 81 per
cent smaller than in 1896, so per cent
smaller than in 1893. the panic year:
IA per cent smaller than in 1892 and in
fact, is the smallest aggregate of liabil-
tiles for the period mentioned that
r,7-I -
even greater shrinkage, being "A per
cent less than last year, less than half
what they were in 1897, 1895, OF, in 1894
only one-third of those of 1896 and only
One-seventh of what they were in 1899.
1t is not strange therefore to find that
the percentage of assets to liabilities is
only "A per cent this year against 81
last year, 50 in 1897, So in 1896 and 20 in