The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-05-19
NOI NHAI / HIS BEN
But Doctors Disagree as to
What Ais Business.
WORKING FORCE lessons
Works Slowing Down to Re-
Iieve 0verproduction.
WORKING FORCE lessons

New York, May 1-R. G.Dun & Co.'S
weekly review of trade tomorrow will
say: Business is not what it was 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 to be merely "spring dull
ness others think the beginning OF re-
actioli." 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 securities which swelled
exchanges a year ago, there has come
such liquidation that twenty preferred
Industrial stocks have sold this week at
prices averaging $S3-14 per share. though
the same stocks sold IN April last year
for 1896 per share, and twenty common
have sold this week for $3S.49 which sold
last year at S76 80, double the price. Yet
many of these companies have earned
and paid good dividends and all have en-
joyeIi a. year of extraordinary business.
The industrials have reached the lowest
average they have ever known, while
the sixty most active railway stocks,
though depressed about 81 per share
since early in April. are higher now than
in January or February, higher than
early in December and higher than a.
year ago. Business in some lines has
been hindered by the holding of prices 50
high as to check consumption. The clos
ing Of works by the Steel and Wire COM
pany, followed by the reduction of $40 per
ton in prices Of its products; the closing
OF many paper mills because Of over-pro-
ductil0n and the sudden reduction of 20
cents per 100 pounds in lead from the
price 10 which it was raised late in De-
cember, and the report that tin plate
works may be closed for a while for SIM
liar reasons, create a feeling that some
business no longer has the guarding and
guiding influences of prices answering
quickly to the demand for consumption.
rnent has been rapid with the past week
Transactions at Pittsburg in Bessemer
seem TO he largely In guaranteed prices
so that definite prices are avoided
though much Bessemer from the east is
offered at very low figures. Grey forge
is a shade lower these, and local coke
at Chicago, while No. / Lehigh is quoted
at s21.50 here. Bar at Philadelphia is
s175, while the Pittsburg association re-
affirms its quotation of cents. which is
shaded. Plates also sell there for II
cents, with LIS quoted at Philadelphia
The demand for structural and other pro
auctions has been much reduced, in part
by building strikes.
Wooden manufacturers are not making
a very satisfactory market at the adj
vanced prices asked, and until a change
appears in that respect the holders of
wool will need patience. Cotton has
broken in price and may go lower as the
time comes for new crop prospects to
have weight, but the decline of an eighth
to a quarter in brown sheetings and
drills has been largely due to opportuni-
ties in the export trade which have been
promptly met. Large sales for shipments
to China have been effected, said to cover
1900 bales, and for the first time since
August the American outlook in that di-
rection Is cheering.
The movement Of grain continues
large, corn still rivalling wheat in guam
tity exported. Atlantic exports of wheat
in three weeks of May have been, -four
included, S,232.On bushels, against 7.016,5iO
last year and Pacific exports 2,203, 909
against 1861, 900 last year while exports
OF corn in the same weeks have been
10.3S2, 95S bushels, against 6914,5S6 last
year Wheat has advanced over q cent,
and corn shows no change for the week
but in both grains the prospect for the
coming crop is excellent.
Failures for the week have been III IN
the United States. against 147 last year.
and so in Canada. against II last year.
BRADSTREETS
New York, May 1S.-Bradstreet's tomor-
row viii say: CONTINUED dullRess in many
branches and a further shading in several
staple lines constitute the leading fea-
lures in the business situation this week
The weakness of prices is displayed in
lower quotations for corn. pork, butter.
cheese. wool and cotton. among the great
agricultural products. and petroleum and
lead among mineral products. Wheat IS
slightly higher partly owing to les
favorable crop reports here and abroad
Continued dryness in the northwest has
given the spring wheat situation a less
satisfactory appearance, and there is lit
tie Improvement noted in the winter
wheat sections Of the central west. II is
a. Il hfav
has as yet really affected. spring wheat,
chief complaint coming from the lumber
interests, which report low streams in
terfering with the forwarding OF supplies.
Wool has ben shaded again. notwith-
standing the fact that rather more
strength is noted in London sale prices,
where supplies of desirable grades are re-