The age-herald., 1900-10-20
WEEKLY REVIEW OF TRADE CONDITIONS Anti-EIection Feeling is Clearly
 Manifest GENERAL TONE IS HEAL THY The South Leads in Activity, Due te Cotton Prices-Exports for Year Promise to Break All Pre-
 vious Records

New York, October 19-Bradstreets to-
 morrow will say:
 As the jobbing distributive trade tends to
 lessen with the advance of the fall season,
 the oppressive influences of anti-election feeling becomes more clearly perceptible, and the result is generally quiet, though at the same time confident feeling in gen.
 eral trade, which the stock market has ap-
 parently begun to discount with the result of swelling current bank ceArings we'll above recent totals.
 As for some time past, the best trade ad-
 vances come from the south which re- 1 mains cheerful in spite of lower cotton. l Pacific coast advices are that export trade l Is very large as the result of army needs l and Asiatic requirements. Northwestern l trade is on the whole quiet, and the dispo- l sition to charge the election with this is
 manifest Eastern wholesale trade is quiet
 but steady. Gross railway returns continue excellent, considering the reports of quiet
 in all other lines and net returns, those for | August are much more encouraging than 1 those of July.
 The country's foreign trade is in flat | tering condition. September exports were 1 the largest ever reported for that month,
 and, swelled by high priced cotton, snip
 ments for the nine months returns are Tar
 in advance of all previous years. Imports
 on the other hand show few gains, and the 1 outlook is for record-breaking export l trade and a merchandise balance for the | calendar year far in advance of all other l years.
 1 Prices of farm products have tended l downward this week. The most notable drop | has been In cotton, half a cent for the week. and on cent from the highest point | reached, due to the good picking weather | and absence of frost, encouraging maximum | estimates of yield but also because Of the | receipts brought out by the high price or | two weeks ago. Cotton goods are very hrm' l despite the drop in raw material but the | disposition is to sell carefully on spring ac- l count. Wool is d little more active and firm In tone in the eastern markets, but the | demand is still to cover Srders received by | manufacturers, who are not inclined 10 | buy beyond this.
 l The depression noted is, perhaps, the
 more prominent in the iron and steel ln- | d1lstries where values for the cruder ma
 tertals remain well down to the lower point
 reached in more than year past and even
 here it is to be noted that larger volume
 of steel rail orders have been placed this | year than in former periods. Sales thls l week Of ralIS are eSllfIdleu dL loVVV AOHSt | mostly at the west. Structural material | makers are reported exceptionally well 1 fixed as to orders, although a meeting of l makers, it is rumored, may cut prices. Pig iron has been slow of sale but Chicago re- ports that business of at least lOO,OOO tons | Is in sight that may be placed after elec- ton The large steel mills are well sup piled with orders though at low prices, and the usual scramble for fall business is absent this year.
 Wheat Qncluding four) shipments for the week aggregate 3,796,649 bushels against A. 297 S55 last week, 4,160,6l8 In the correspond l ing week of 1889, 4,2S2 173 in 1898, 5,552,ln in l 1897 and 40. 1,2T in 1S96
 1 From July l to date this season wheat exports are 5,311, 165 bushels against 65, ,l25- = l 665 last season and 61,510SS9 in 1S9S-99. Corn exports for the week aggregate D. | SS6, ,993 bushels against 2,S96037 last week, | 5, ,O58 697 in this week year ago, 2592, ,5l9
 bushels in 1898, 1,177,543 in 1897 and 2979,9S4 | in 1898.
 From July 1 to date this season corn ex-
 ports are 5O,094, 601 bushels against 69,Sl2, ,S56
 last season and H,95I ,431 in 1S9S-99 | Business failures for the week number | 222 in the nited States against HO last | week. 221 in this week a year ago, 213 in 1893, | 205 in 1897 and 292 in 1896.
 1 Canadian failures for the week numbered | g against 36 last week, 20 in this week a
 year ago, "A in 1898. H in 1897 and 4S in 1896.