Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1899-09-26
NO SIGN OF REACTION.
Bank Clearings Indicate an Ex-
banded Volume of Business
During Fall Months.

New York, Sept. 23-Bradstreet's says:
Satisfactory trade and price conditions
apparently still reign. So few, in fact. are
the reports Of poor trade mat favorable re
ports may be said to be almost unanimous
An expanded volume of fall trade is ind-
Gated by the aggregate of bank clearingS
for the week. though reports from some
markets point to the greatest rush being
over. Prices. as a rule maintain all their
former strength, decreases being few and
relatively unimportant. In several lines.
notably the cereals, cotton, petroleum, iron
and steel the tendency has been toward
higher levels. Cotton has been notably
strong and active. Short crop estimates are
becoming more generally current, and bear
practically discarded. Steady demand for
export and confidence in all of this years
wheat crop being needed have proved Stimu-
lating, in the face of heavy receipts and
admittedly large present supplies. Posi-
bility of war in the Transvaal. too, has
been an additionally strengthening feature.
Iron and steel are higher, and the steady
placing of orders indicates confidence i'll
present values well on into the middle Of
next year Pig iron, however, is nearer Il
parity with consumption. The scarcity Of
beef cattle is reflected in still higher prices,
and strength is shown in domestic hides.
which also fec! the impetus of steady de-
mand from manufacturers Of leather. Most
lines of manufacturing return strikinsiy
good reports, notably in this respect being
cotton and wooden goods. Demand for lum-
ber though interfered with by strikes a
pd % sarctE If epd of
is reported quite generally in the West.
This scarcity Of transportation, however. is
not limited to the lumber trade. similar re
ports coming from the coal and iron in
dustrieS
Duns 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 reaction
elsewhere. Such signs have been hard to
find. 1t has been for months wonder that
the demands for products was sustained at
exceeding cODSumDfiOn in
year, Notwithstanding the general rise in
prices. But the demand does not appear
TO abate and the rise in prices continues.
partial explanation is that scarcely any
class of products directly consumed by in
Wages and ae empoyment Of labor as with
more hands at work, more hours and at
10 to 10 per cent. higher wages, the gain
in purchasing power has been quite beyond
the rise of per cent. in boots and shoes
this year. or 8 per cent. in leather, % per
cent. in wooden goods or 1919 per cent. in
wool, and even beyond the rise of IL per
cent. in cotton goods, mainly due to the
rise of 13 per cent. in cotton. But products
used in manufacturing and transporting
have advanced much more because of the
enormous increase in 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. Perhaps war
possibilities abroad had something to do
with pressure in stocks, but the great body
of street car and industrial stocks carried
evident that somebody would be found to
buy as long as anybody would lend the
money to buy with, and transfer to stronger
hands could be effected only through liqui-
datiOn at lower prices. Prices fell SIG
per share for railway stocks in part due
to the three traction stocks included. but
recovered S1.66. While industrials averaged
a fall of s.. OF and recovered only $1.26 per
share Railroad earnings were cheering, in
the first half Of September 10.1 per cent.
larger than last year. and 12.5 per cent.
larger than in 1892, all classes gaining over
both years. Eastbound tonnage from Chi
cago, largely owing to the grain movement.
has been lis per cent. larger than last
year, and SIG per cent larger than in 1892