The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-05-22
BUSINESS TIDE
STILL RECEp|NG
Trade is Not What it Was
Last Year.
WORKS ARE STOPPING
They Say it is to Reduce the Excess.
sive Output.
PRICES ARE REDUCED ON MANY ARTICLES
Business in Some Lines CurtaiIed by Holding Of
Prices so High as TO Check Consumptio,
Spring Dizziness or the Begin
ming Of Reaction?
(By the Associated Press.)

Wy IL tSSOtlANtu 4tS9-}
New York. May 1S.-R. G. Dun and
Company's Weekly Review OF Trade to-
morrow will say:
Business is not what II was n year
ago. but men do not agree in defining
the difference. The working force. then
increasing fast. is now decreasing. Works
are stopping TO relieve excessive output
in manufactures Of paper. cotton. wool,
leather and some forms OF steel, while
prices are suddenly reduced for the
same purpose in lead, wire and nails.
What seems to some merely spring dull
ness others think the beginning of re-
action The remedy for one difficulty
does not fit the other. and there is more
need than usual for close attention TO
the meaning Of events.
In place Of the wild speculation in Sc
surities which swelled exchanges a year
ago. there has come such liquidation
that twenty preferred industrial stocks
have sold this week at prices averaging
$S3.1 II pei share, though the same stocks
sold III April last year for $500 per
share and twenty common have sold this
week for 1854 which sold last year at
$3.50 double the price. Yet many OF
these companies have earned and paid
good dividends and all have enjoyed a
year of extraordinary business. The in
dustrials nave reached the lowest average
they have ever known, while the sixty
most active railroad stocks, though de
pressed about 81 per share since early
in April. are higher now than in most Of
January or February; are higher than
early in December and higher than a
year ago.
Business in some lines has been cur
toi1o1 nv tho hOI6jnC of nrirpc so HIGH
as to check consumption. The closing
Of works by the steel and wire com
pany. following by the reduction of $40
per ton in prices of its products. the
closing of many paper mills because of
Over-productiOn; the sudden reduction
of seventy cents per 100 pounds of lead
from the price to which it was raised
late in December: the report that tin
plate works may be closed a while for
similar reasons, create a feeling that
some business no longer has the guard
ing and guiding influence Of prices an
swering quickly to the demand for con-
sumption. But progress toward q healthy
adjustment has been rapid within the
past week.
transactions at Pittsburg in Besse-
mer pig seem to be largely at 'guaran-
} teed prices so that definite quotations
are avoided, though much Bessemer from
the East is offered at very low figures
Grey Forge is a shade lower there anc
local coke at Chicago, while No. l Lehigl
is quoted at $3.50 here. Bars sell a
Philadelphia for 1.75, while the Pittsbure
Association re-affrms it's quotation o.
two cents which is shaded. Plates also
t sell there at II cents, with 1.75 quoted
2 at Philadelphia. The demand for struc-
tural and other products has been mucf
1900 -. 49, Ill
, WOODEN manufacturers are not meet
ing a very satisfactory market at The
:. advanced prices asked, and until a chang
appears in that respect the holders 0
wool will need patience.
Cotton has broken in price and ma.
go lower as the time comes for nev
crop prospects to have weight, but TIL
h decline of an eighth to a quarter in brow
d sheetings and drills has been largely du
t to opportunities in the export trad
which have been promptly met. Larg
sales for shipment to China have bee
), effected, said to cover 13,C0O bales, an
for the first time since August the Amer
lean outlook in that direction is cheer
ing.
: seThe movement Of grain continue
large. corn still rivalling wheat in guam
> tity exported. Atlantic exports Of whea
: in three weeks of May have been, fiou
included, 1922, O41 bushels, against I.
. Ole. $40 bushels last year and Pacific ey
ports of corn in the same weeks hav
been 10, 382, 93S bushels, against 6,91f.53
! bushels last year. Wheat advanced owe
!" a cent and corn shows no change for tn
Q week, but in both grains the prospect fo
the coming crop is excellent.
Failures for the week have been II
in the United States against 147 last yea
e and 80 in Canada, against II last year.
If "