The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-01-03
WAS A RECORD
:. BREAKER IN TRADE
Past Y ear Was Without a Par
aIIel in Business, Brad
street Declares.
THE OUTLOOK is BRIGHT
The Remarkable Commercial Ex-
pansion in 1901 Is Reviewed and
ADVERTISEMENTS Annual
Resume Of Trade.

New York Dec. 30.-Ihe annuai IT,
view of American trade, finance and IN
dustry prepared by Bradstreets ana
given publicity yesterday declares l9ol
to be a record breaker among the H'e
succeeding years of commercial eH-
pansion enjoyed by the United States.
Its pre-eminence, the review states, was
all the more notable because it suffered
from a combination Of happenings that
in a normal year would have proved
distressing, If not disastrous. Among
the latter were the machinists ana
steel strikes. the stock panic Oh May
the failure Of several ~imprudently man.
aged combinations, the efforts Of some
combinations, including that in copper,
to fix prices, the shortage in corn, cot
ton and oats, and the assassination or
President Mckinley:
summarizing the general situation
the review says:
Briefly summarized the year mas
seen transacted an aggregate of bust
ness, as reflected in bank c~lear1ngs,
far in excess Of any preceding period;
has witnessed stock speculation, ram
pant beyond the dreams of old time
brokers, checked and curtailed by one
of the sharpest stock panlcs IN MS
tory, and yet with a remarkable mini
mum of disturbance of general imam
cial operations; has watched general
industry and production grow steadily
until new and larger figures were need
ed to express the outputs Of coal and
ore and iron and steel and leather and
lumber and a multitude of other
branches; has seen the freight trans
portation facilities of the country
strained to the breaking point, prove
insufficient to handle the volume Of
business offered; and finally has wit
messed a volume of holiday business
passing all previous bounds both In
the quantity and quality and the vastly
increased purchasing power of the pub
lice nlate years. From the standpoint Of
the present estimates the clearings this
year will exceed the highest records OF
preceding years by o~ne-fourth. GROSS
railway earnings ave increased ~ per
cent and net returns have gained 1t
per cent over the best preceding year.
Pig iron production will be not far
from o~ne-seventh larger the
heaviest ever before recorded. Shoe
production and shipments, and there
fore, presumably leather production.
show almost as large a gain. Iron ore
production and shipments were never
before equaled. Certainly lake Ship
ments We're never SO large. Anthracite
coal production will be fully 10 per
CtHl. ldIS6I HAL last yCal tia y Pei
cent heavier than the record. The BIZ
luminous production promises as heavy
a gain over past records. Woollen
manufacturing has been helped by low
cost Of material and good demand for
clothing.
"All the eturns are not SO favorable.
There has been less money in cotton
for the south this year, n the mar
gin of profit in manufacture has occa-
stoned complaint there and In New
and old England. The agricultural in
terests are favored by heavy advances
in farm products, which have done
much to counterbalance reductions in
yield. Export trade has shown signs
Of hesitation, after years of steady ad-
vance, and imports have increased, but
mainly in materials intended for {
nestle, manufacture, and the mars
in favor of exports is still Enormously
heavy"
The bank clearings were estimated
at $118, 600, 900, 900, a gain of 3S per cent
over last year and rs per cent over the
record of 1899. The middle states
showed the greatest increase in clear
tngs.