Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-11-11
COMMISSION MAKES COMMENTS.
Feature of the Showing Is the Rapid and
Wide Variation in Prices.

Feature of the showing Is the Rapid and
Wide Variation in Prices.
The variation in prices is commented
upon as follows: Probably the most
conspicuous fact shown is
the very rapid and wide variations in
the prices of all three of the products
cOmpared-and most Of all in the
prices of pig iron. Even in earlier
years the price statistics
show similar sharp fluctuations. The
diagrams herewith presented bring out
the great and sudden decline in the
prices of all three products during the
year JS9O. This was followed by :,
long and gradual fall. which brought
the price of pig iron down from SIG III
the beginning OF 1891 to $40 ut the end
of 1894. y sudden sharp rise in the
prices of all three products is seen in
1895. but this was followed by an al
most equally rapid decline. and during
1897 ana 1898 the prices stood prIc-
tically ut the bottom figure.
The most noticeable movement
shown in the diagram is that during
1899. when the price of pig iron rose
from SO to SD and the price of rails
from SIT to SO. Almost equally sud-
den and very great, however. was the
decline in the prices of these products.
especially billets and pig iron. during
the latter part of 1900. Since that
time there has been recovery. which
leaves the prices Of all three products
considerably higher than fer the years
1890 to 1898.
N''TheSe often sudden and violent fiuc-
tuations show. among other iudic2-
tiOnS. the great changes in demand for
iron and steel products from time TO
time. and the marked sensitivenesS OF
prices to such changes in demand. \
noteworthy feature of the diagram re-
garding steel rails is the fact that the
selling prices for considerable periods
of time throughout the decade covered
by the figures have been held uniform.
Thus, through most of 1891 and 1892
the uniform price named was $50 per
ton; through 1894 it was S24 per ton;
and through the latter part of 1895 and
1896 it wnS SOS rer ron.
Uniformity in Prices
This uniformity in prices is doubt
less due to the existence of pools from
time to time among the manufacturers,
and the sudden changes following the
periods of uniformity are probably ex-
plicable not so much by great changes
in demand at the precise date of the
change in price as by either the break
ing of pools or the determination on the
part Of their managers that the pre-
v!ously fixed prices were too high or
too low. 1t is very commonly stated
in the trade journals that the nominal
prices quoted for steel rails are not al
ways maintained in practice. but that.
secretly or openly. sales are being
made below the quoted rates.
ITO certain extent the changes in
the price of rails are followed by
changes i'm the price of pig iron, but
the more or less artificial price of rails
indicated in the diagram prevents this
parallClism from being as close as it
us in the case of billets and pig IRON
We find that the cost of rails, which
depends largely on the price of the
chief constituent. pig iron. varies much
more greatly from month to month
than the selling prices; while, on the
other hand, it occasionally happens
that a very sudden change in the sell
ing price of rails appears unaccom-
panied by any cOrrespondingly sudden
change in cost 1t naturally follows
that the margin between the cost and
selling price is a much more variable
quantity in the case of rails than In
the case of billets." -