The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-05-22

New York, May 1s.-R. G. Dun &
Cos. weekly Review of Trade tomor-
row will say:
Business is not what it was a 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 exces-
sive output n manufactures of paper,
I~cotton, wool, leather and some forms
of steel, while prices are suddenly re-
duced, for the same purpose, in lead,
wire and nails. What seems to some
merely spring dullness," others think
the beginning Of reaction The rem
Iedy for one difficulty does not fit the
other and there is more need than
usual for close attention to the mean
ing of events.
In place of the wild speculation in
securities which swelled exchanges a
year ago, there has come such liquida-
ton 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
$99.6S per share and twenty common
have sold this week for $3.50 which
sold last year at $76.99-dOuble the
price. Yet many of. these companies
have. earned and paid good dividends
and all have enjoyed a year of extra
ordinary business. The industr1als
have reached the lowest average they
have ever known. while the sixty most
active railroad stocks, though depress-
ed about 81 per share since early in
April, are higher now than in most
of January or February, higher than
early in December and higher h a
year g
T. -4- hac haan
hoodooed by the holding Of prices so
high as to check consumption. The
closing of works by the steel and wire
company, followed by the reduction
of $40 per ton in prices of its products;
the closing of many paper mills be-
cause Of over-production; the sudden
reduction of 20 cents per 100 pounds
in lead from the price to which 1T was
raised late in December; the report
that tin plate works may be closed
awhile for similar reasons, create a
feeling that some business nc longer
has the guarding and guiding influence
OF prices answering quickly to the de-
mand for consumption; but progress
toward a healthy adjustment has been
rapid within the past week.
Transactions at PittSburg in Besse-
mer pig seem to be largely at guar
anteed prices so thai definite quota
tons are avoided though much Besse-
mer from the east is offered at very
low figures. Grey forge is a shade
lower there and local coke at Chicago,
while No. 1 Lehigh is quoted at $21.5O
here. Bars sell at Philadelphia for
4. rs cents, while the Pfttsburg associa-
ton reaffirms it's quotation of 2 cents,
which is shaded. Plates also sell there
at Ito cents, with LIS cents quoted at
Philadelphia, The demand for struc-
'tura1 and other products has been
much reduced in part by building
strikes.
Cotton has broken in price and may
go lower as the time m for new
crop prospects to have weight, but the
decline of an eighth to a quarter in
Drown sheetingS and drills a been
largely due to opportunities in the
export trade which have been promptly
met. Large sales for shipment to
China have been effected, said to
Is, 900 bales, and for the first time since
August the American outlook in that
direction is cheering.
The movement of grain continues
large, corn still rivaling wheat in
Quantity exported. Atlantic exports
of wheat in three weeks of May have
been, flour included, S,232,O41 bushels,
against 7,O16, $40 last year, n Pacific
exports of corn in the same weeks
have been 1882 $50 bushels against
Is, 914, $50 last year.
Failures for the week have been III
in the United States against 141 last
wear.