The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-17
0IslNEsS GOING ON A BOOM.
ors OF STEEL AND RUBBER
foDUCrS SKIPPING SkYWARD.

rrwfR
the Last several Weeks-Fhe
,and for steel Products Great
Thar the supply and the Big
,ts DeeIining to Sell Goods Far
,d--Rubber Also in Balloon.
. Worth Seems to Have PLENTY
money and Is buying All the
.,rities 1t Can Get.
..pr,ces of everything in the hardware
are going skyward," remarked the
p"' Of a large hardware house TO
-,t,g News reporter yesterday. The
,oe in the last several weeks has been
',rl,able. Pretty nearly everything we
na has increased in price from % 10
90 per cent. .,.-o., =. mas
/ asked. .,;oa
1 ..rbs prices of hardware are. of course
med by the price of stee, and an in
ESQ in the cost of steel means that
met nav more. for our hardware. Inc
'1,,sua1 demand for steel during the last
49, months has put that article at
rr4mlum, and the result is that many
..r7o.are men have been caught mapping
The method of doing business whlch mas
4 I'm in vogue among the hardware man
'e,,t,1rers and pretty much all others
4 rbn deal in steel products during the iasC
4 several years, has been to hrst sell the
4 a,o5s ana then place their orders for the
e,iarjal Iron and steel being plentltul
\ and with prices generally falling, 1t was
the advantage of the manufacturer TO
4 s,stoone the purchase of his material as
. ;ong as possible. as he was usually able
4 n make better terms by waiting, the sup
4 nsv usually being in excess of the demand.
4 The result was that the recent heavy de
i ,oand for steel caught many manufactur-
l srs napping and iobbers, too. Those job
hers who had in large orders for goods
4 q, agreed prices made good thing out OF
il but there were many who were not in
4 tins happy condition
For years ron and steel have been so
\ r1entiful as to be drug on the market.
4 Now the reverse is the case. The South
4 ern representative of the Carnegie steel
works was in TO see me a short time ago
4 and informed me that he had positive or
ders from his manager not to sell dol
lars worth of goods for delivery at any
date beyond three months. With the pres
II emf condition of the steel market they are
unwilling to make contracts beyond that
time"
W nat accounts lOl TIC SN0LSAtS u
steel?" the hardware man was asked
Various reasons are given he replied.
The real reason seems to be that on ac-
count of the weak demand the big plants
allowed their stocks to run down until
about all of the surplus product has been
used up. lhe sudden demand for steel is
partly accounted for by the general in
crease in prosperity, chiefly in the North
and West There is a great deal of new
r,r1r t,sf, 7nr~fsa in he Of
building operations in those sections and
the greatly increased use of steel in build
ings has caused a heavy demand to be
made upon the steel output. Steel is com
ing into more general use every day for
building purposes. Practically all large
buildings erected now are merely frame
works of steel incased in brick. Every new
skyscraper erected in the larger cities
calls for several hundred tons of steel. The
small supply on hand has caused the
prices of both steel billets and iron ore
to jump rapidly and every ton of iron ore
that can be obtained is being bought as
fast as it can be offered. Naturally every
thing made from iron and steel is affect
ed. The largely increased exports of
American steel manufactures doubtless
has something to do also with the increas-
ed prices of steel and iron products"
Practically the same state of affairs ex.
ISIS in the rubber market" continued the
hardware man. THE prices of
all rubber goods are going sky
ward even more rapidly than
hardware Just go to your stationer and
ask for dozen rubber erasers, and you
Will find that they will cost you three
times what they did short time ago. The
cause and effect are the same as in the
hardware line, small supply and large de-
mand. 1t is we'll known that the supply
OF India rubber is limited and the indi-
cauons are that it is decreasing rather
than increasing. The wasteful methods
pursued by the native gatherers of the
gum are destroying the forests, and no
adequate efforts are being made to protect
Iaem Rubber is very generally used in
electrical work, and the rapid expansion
Of all lines of electrical work has caused
very heavy demand for rubber appli-
ances' The rubber trust will make ire
mendous amount of money out of this
state of affairs
by the way" remarked the hardware
pan, do you know that nearly every
ping We handle is manufactured or con-
troIed by trusts. We receive notice of
the formation of some new trust in our
3he Of goods almost every day. What
+ going to be the result of this state of
affairs, l cannot say The future of the
4opDer does not look very bright, to my
mind. Ii is not impossible that he may
ne driven out of business altogether
trusts are purely benevolent institutions,
you know, formed and conducted solely
Tor the benefit of the producer and the
Consumer In the progress of this work
Oh oenevolence, we jobbers may be wiped
out"
wish that wave of prosperity would
'ake turn in this direction" continued
me hardware man. Somehow, something
Always seems to keep il from coming our
way. Either il is the low price of cotton
or the price is all right the crop fails
Inc people of the North seem to have
more money than they know what to do
Wllh il just now. The stock market is on
boom, and every security that warrants
any degree of confidence is in demand The
supply of securities on this side has not
oeen sufficient to meet the demand, and in
'estors are buying our railway securities
% Europe and bringing them back to this
side Maybe we can catch some of the
Hrppnss of this prosperity, but I can't
See The way to do il just now