Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-02-13
Output Of Manufactures Sur.
passes All Previous Years.
NEW ORDERS NOT HEAVY
Condition of Various Industries OF the
Country and Clcarings of the Week
In the Leading Cities of the
United States.

.
Co.'s weekly review of trade says to-
day:
The industries are still surprising
. in actual output the work of any pre-
vious year. Their new business is not
correspondingly large, nor could such
orders be accepted by most industries
if offered, but enough are coming to
prevent stoppage of works or much
decline in prices.
In wooden goods new business of re-
markable volume sustains marked
advance in prices, and in other lines of
importance, as in machinery, orders
indicate surprising foreign demand.
Meanwhile, tho encouraged by the
abundance and ease of money, spec
ulation does not in. any direction as yet
promise to do mischief. There is much
OF the speculative spirit abroad, but
also more caution than is usually
shown after a year of exceptional
prosperity. Perhaps the war in Afri-
ca, with its possibilities of daily sur
prise, is in that respect productive Of
good. -
Cotton followed it's rise from cents
to sN cents last week by further
rise to $3.50 cents, with growing belief
that the crop will prove short enough
and the consumption large enough to
give holders quite their own way. The
253,00O bales, or 20 per cent, but in De-
81 4
per cent. The exports in January were
smaller than last year by 10000
bales, over 80 per. cent, and
bales, in European mill stocks on
cotton 3,386,752 bales on Feb. /, show
that good part of the years needs is
already provided for. But it is reason.
should be reduced below 100000 bales
at the end of the year, as they were
in 1897, prices would range between
Z cents and sA cents, as in that year
they did from Feb. 1 to Sept. I, with
a great crop coming.
The manufacturers here have al
ready been somewhat embarrassed by
the comparatively narrow demands
olACC PllCSS VI SOOlS "ClC
advanced, but the rise this week has
and may ultimately lessen consump-
ton to some extent.
No change of consequence yet ap.
pears in prices of wool, tho the de-
1nand from spinners is limited, and
it is perceived that they had previously
! supplied themselves quite fully for the
heavyweight season, for which they
have taken large orders. 1t is thought
by some that enforced sales of foreign
wool, which was withdrawn from the
London sale in January in order to
prevent a greater decline, may here
after affect this market.
The weekly output of pig iron Feb. I
was 29s,o14 tons, but stocks unsold
rose 20, 800 tons in January, indicating
consumption slightly smaller than
the output when the month began. As
the consuming works were naturally
stopped about the holidays more than
the furnaces, the figures prove little, but
Bessemer and gray forge at Pittsburg
last week, and slightly lower offers OF
pig by southern and other new fur.
naces at Chicago and eastern markets
have had little effect.
1t is more significant that the de-
cline of prices for some weeks in bars
plates, and sheets has been checked
Large orders have been taken for these
and other products, indicating that the
works in need of business may have
obtained enough for a time.
no prices Of hemlock sole have been
reduced half a cent, and of split and
some upper gathers, the boot and shoe
manufacturers are mot yet inclined to
buy largely, as they are getting but a
small part of the contracts they need
at this season. Jobbers still hold back
as, far as they can, and the slow yield.
ing in hides at Chicago increases ex.
pectation that leather may further de
cline. But tho buying is small the
works are producing and delivering
more than ever before. Last year the
deliveries from Boston were "a per cent
larger than in 1890, but this year thus
far they have been 10 per cent larger
than last year.
Failures for the week were PAS in
the United States, against 217 last year
and 33 in Canada, against IS last year
.ss Viewed by Rradstrcet.
Bradstreet's today will say: