The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-22

Inc Business Boon COnrinues.-Oues.
ton N 60 Continued Advance OF Prf,
ship Building DELAYED BY scare
ify Of Material Rails selling at Les,
Than the Raw Material.
New York, August 1s.-R~ G. Dun
q Co.'S weekly Review OF Trade will
say Tomorrow:
The Cramps have dis .nargsd many
hundred hands. and ask Russia 70 ex-
tend time for completion o. two war
ships because they. cannot get the cteei.
Completion Of twen1y-ono out of thir-
ty-seven vessels building In the Dele
ware was also affected. Il is a curious
experience for this country and shows
the gigantic expansion OF h VIE demand
No n can question the fact that pay
rnents through the principal clearing
houses have been in August $50 per
cent larger than in 1892 for the month
thus far, and outside OF New York %
per cent No better test Of the volume
OF business is known. bu. there is a
growing handicap in the advance Of
prices. How long and how far this
advance can go without reaction is the
problem which level-neaoeG business
men are studying. Evidences OF
checked consumption are rare, but it
would be childish to hope that at
some point higher prices would not
hinder buying.
In iron the question is of steel billets.
which the great consuming companies
have bought far in advance, SO that all
new orders have a narrow market. For
six months billets have sold at 81 TO Sc
higher than the rails made from them
Other demands, not covered by con-
tracts, are mainly for various shapes
and sizes only prescribed in con-
tents. While prices have risen %
cents for southern pig iron, 50 cents
for. Chicago local coke, and IS cents
for grey forge at Pittsburg, rails have
advanced 81 per ton, with work cover
ed for all this year, and 400, 600 tons or
more taken beyond what can be deliv-
cred until next year.
Other finished products do not change
although the demand at all points ex-
ceeds present capacity.
Copper is steady at 1S3 cents for lake,
with production for July q, 1856 tons
domestic and 1890 tons foreign. Tin
is lower at 800 cents, and lead weak
ON the stoppage of the smelter
strike.
Cotton rose a week ago ID $50 cents,
but has fallen to GIG, MI. Neill hav-
ing estimated the coming yield at H.
ESQ, 900 to IL, 000, 900 bales. Official and
other estimates are all much smaller,
hut the man who Judged rightly a year
ago has the floor. Consumption here
and abroad has been very large and
prices Of goods are rising, while cot
ton falls and stocks carried over must
also be large III; will be loss than
present returns indicate.
Wheat has advanced about a cent
during the week, with Atlantic ex-
ports only 2,363. 302F bushels. -four in
cluded, against BOSE, $50 last year., AID
Pacific exports 25i 229 bushels, against
49, 400 last yalr. Western receipts
have been only 3.212,117 bushels against
3,369,229 last year. 1t is a question
whether the smaller receipts are due
to recent changes in crop prospects,
giving holders of grain a better out
look.
1t is significant that corn has risen
three-eights of a cent, with receipts OF
3,026,692 bushels for the week, against
3,514, 1872 last year, while the exports
have been 4,034,3 02 bushels against
1870, 3Q2 las year. The figures early
dc rot indie lte a material decrease N
foreign demand on the whole, although
for wheat it is somewhat smaller than
appeared in July.
Failures for the week have been
in the United States 156, against 154
last year and in Canada "a, against II
last e