The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-11
DUN'S TRADE REVIEW
LEGITIMATE BUSINESS ON A FIRM FOUNDATION.
Reports from Nearly Every City Show an Exceptional Volume of Transactions and Payments
 Promptly Met.

New York, May 10.-R. G. Dun & Co.'S weekly review of trade tomorrow will say: A panic in Wall Street does not mean that legitimate business has suddenly ceased to prosper nor is the condition of mercantile trade and manufacture adversely affected by a violent fall in price of securities. Throughout the entire country funda- mental conditions were never as sound as at the present time; reports from nearly every city this week showing an exceptional volume of transactions and payments promptly met.
 Production is not over-taxing demand at the finish in the steel mills and all Pittsburg plants are two months be- hind orders, while ninety days is the limit at many. Although the expected advance in bar iron did not appear, the tone continues firm and orders are liberal. Billets remain at the top point for prompt deiiverey but reason- able terms are available on forward contracts. In structural shapes and railway equipment there is all the business in sight that makers desire and no effort is made to secure addi- tional orders. Less urgency is re- corded in pig iron markets, but buyers do not find terms more satisfactory and in fact forge and foundry iron is rather more firmly held. Although the total number of furnaces fin blast on May l, was forty smaller than on February 1, 1900. The Iron Age esti- mates the weekly capacity at 310,1 tons which exceeds all previous high water marks. The activity of steel manufacturing is emphasized by the decres SC of 34.729 tons in furnace stocks during April despite the unparalleled production.
 Less sensational events transpired in the cereal markets than in the preced- ing week, although quotations are elow to recede. Corn eased off a few cents, but is still about 10 cents a bushel, or nearly 25 per cent above the quotation at the corresponding date in the two preceding years. Western operators continue to entertain strong views and appear little daunted by the larger re- ceipts attracted to interior cities by the unusually profitable prices offered. For the week arrivals aggregated B. 2T, ,094 bushels against 2,196,2 POP last year. Foreign purchasers have been driven out of the domestic markets by the high quotations and Atlantic ex- port for the week have been 1,121, IA bushels, compared with 3,709,SS0 a year ago.
 Shipments of boots and shoes from Boston rose to an unusual point. az gregating 103, 320 cases for the week. against 79,371 cases in the previous week and 6S.151 in the corresponding period last year. The total movement since January. is now but 30,000 cases below 1900 to date and far above any other year.
 Recovery in the price of cotton was only temporary ana heavy liquidation of options was accompanied by fall in spot middlirg uplands to the lowest figure recorded this year. Even at loss of $9 a bale, compared with the quotation prevailing year ago, there Is little disposition to secure raw ma terial either by domestic or foreign spinners. As the end of the crop year approaches there is no sign of the fam inc predicted by many exporters earlier in the season and with most monot- onous regularity port receipts continue two or three times as large as in the same week last year. With a large yield probable this year and unsatis- factory conditions at the mills, there is no inducement to hold stocks. The situation is similar regarding wool and woolens. Raw material Is abundant and a large clip probable, while man. ufacturers have only a light demand for goods.
 - Failures for the week numbered 1S7 in the United States against 191 last year and 26 in Canada against 15 last