The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-04

anu IRON lIaOe u Altue O0eetkle0s
Result of Changes aud Forming Of
New Combinafions-Boot and shoe
Business Halttng-Grain Exports
New York, March 31.-R. G. DUN &
Co. in their Weekly Review of Trade
will say:
Failures during the first quarter of
1899 have been in amount of liabilities
not more than about s26, CSC, $50, against
$31, 71O,142 last year, $4S, O07, $40 in 1897
and s57, 2 {. 135 in 1896. While the
later returns may increase the amount
for the quarter a little. the complete
return which will be given next week
will be very remarkable in comparison
with that Of any previous year
! Business is not at present improving.
There have been something very like a
check, partly of heavy buying since
January 1st to anticipate the market,
partly caused by the uncertainty about
the operation of many combinations,
n a shade Of doubt about foreign af-
J fairs also had some influence. The new
rule Of the clearing house banks at New
York about taxation of country checks
also causes some shifting Of accounts.
A period of transitio- from n
( ownership and management to another
and from n industrial system to an
I other, when it affects many hundreds
almost throughout the country, inevi-
tally causes some hesitation in bust
: ness A little later the many hundred
concerns may be doing more business
than ever, as they were just before the
combinations were effected; but at the
point Of transaction nobody knows just
what to expect.
There is much withdrawal of iron
because continuance of high prices is
doubted, because great purchases made
by many works have not been met by
orders and because works Affected by
many other combinations proposed are
not inclined to buy more largely. Prices
are strongly maintained at $15.15 for
Bessermer pig at Pittsburg, the valley
associations having sold 100, 900 tons
for delivery in the last half of the year
at $14.5O and grey forge is stronger at
$l4.40, but hesitation appears at Phila-
delphia about maintenance of future
prices. Chicago is inactive, compared
with recent weeks. With no sales re-
ported, except O 1000 tons at Chicago,
rails are quoted 81 higher there and as
much at Pittsburg, and the sale of $780,
900 tons of steel billets to the tinplate
company set the price for 100 pounds
plate at $4.05 after July LIST. Structural
demand increases, but bar mills at the
west and south are consolidating and
are not disposed to take large contracts,
although the Pittsburg mills are ask
ing $3.50 because behind their orders.
For plates the demand far exceeds the
supply at Philadelphia and Chicago,
and the leading mills at Pittsburg are
full until August or later. In hoops,
! cotton ties, tubes and other products,
expected consolidation affects business.
Minor metals are stronger for tin at
"a cents with consuming demand, and
for copper at IFS cents, owing to Lon
don speculation.
More evidence appears that the wool
en- manufacture is not helped as yet by
n-w combinations or the prospect Of
them, and the buying demand has been
disappointing in many ways, though in
! dress goods active.
The boot and shoe business is again
hating because of difference between
! buyers and sellers a. to prices.
The fluctuations of the wheat mar
ket nave Deen large q tend, on the
whole, toward higher quotations. Elk
ports at Atlantic ports, flour included,
have been for four weeks II, SIS, 512
bushels, against 1892, 495 last year;
Pacific 1903, 687 bushels, against 2,774,-
112; and the other exports, not given
l st year, make the total 1870 rs,
bushels. Western receipts have
12,949,S15 bushels, against 9,968, 373.
Railroad earnings for three weeks of
March have been fl per cent. larger
han last year and 9.S per cent. larger
than 1892, and the eastbound tonnage
from Chicago in four weeks has been
459, 43S tons, against 622, 901 last year
ARD 356,365 in 1892, which indicates
quite clearly the remarkable depres-
sion in rates a year ago.
Failures for the week have been 1874
in the United States against 220 last