The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-08-18
REVIEW OF TRADE.
Buyers of Nearly All Lines Eager to
Stock UP.

New York, Aug. 1S.-R. C. Dun & Cos
Weekly Review of Trade today says:
After a great wave of advancing prices
optimism as to business is generally
dangerous. But the top was reached the
middle of March, since which time reac-
ton has come in every great industry, so
that consumers are asking whether in
some directions the decline may not have
been reasonably large, as was the ad-
vance, and whether buying on the pres
ent basis of prices is not fairly sure
There are fresh evidences of weakness in
raw materials, notably the break in
structural iron, but each one is aVailed
to place heavy contracts. New York IS
welcoming buyers from all over the
country in larger numbers than fo-
many years at this season, in dry goods
in groceries, in jewelry and in hardware;
and if contracts are not placed to as
large a volume as expected by them, 1t
is because of conservatism of those who
think they may compel some further
shading of prices. Reports this week
from other important points of diStribu-
ton show the same eagerneSS to buy
when the time seems right.
1t is becoming more apparent that the
bottom has been reached in prices of iron
and steel. The decline was severe and
recovery must be slow, but gradual adj
vances and moderately increasing activ-
ity are more healthy than violent
changes. In no single division is the i'm
provement more striking than in any
other. Except steel rails, all forms of
iron, from the ore to the finished product
are being sought more eagerly and with
less effort to secure further concessions
in prices.
The first effect of the official report of
wheat conditions, indicating a total crop
of only 513, 997, 900 bushels, was to
strengthen prices, but when the secre-
tary of agriculture was reported as pre-
dieting dollar heat before the end of
the year, the market showed an 1ncilpa-
ton to disa gree, and the September OPP
ton fell below so cents at New York for
the first time in two months.
For the year thus far shipments of
boots and shoes from Boston are 2,735.-
443 cases, against 2,914,S in 1899, but
the volume of business to date has been
exceeded in only three years The trade
is suffering from accumulation of stocks
that cannot be sold without loss as
compared with the price at which shoes
could now be made. Hides are in a bet
ter position than the leather market
seems to warrant.
Failures for the week were ISL, in the
United States, against 156 last year, and
"a in Canada, against "a last year.
Bradstreet'S today says:
Among the favorable features report
ed this week are advices of further ex-
pansion in fall trade distribuation at
leading wetsern centerS, with relatively
best buying processing from those sec
tions of the southwest which have pro-
fitted by good crops, rather better dis
tribution by dry goods jobberS at the
east, a firmer tone and a perceptible
growth in confidence, accompanied by
heavy buying in some classes Of steel
and iron, and a disposition to believe
that an average wheat crop and much
more than average corn and oats crops
are assured. Steady increases in current
gross railway earnings over a year ago
and an exceptionally favorable net earn
ingS report for the first half of the year
are additional encouraging features The
list of unfavorable elements in the trade
situation is at best a negative one, the
approach of a presidential campaign,
though less effective than usual in this
respect, thebackward demand for spring
woolens, and the slow demand for the
raw material, the restriction in produc-
ton of some makes of cotton goods. the
dullness in building materials, notably
lumber, and the backward inquiry for
boots and shoes at the east, being among
these Speculation in nearly all lines and
especially food products, is at low ebh,
and what changes are noted are
mainly because of this, though weather
and crop conditions have played some
part in wheat, corn and cotton respec-