The Green Forest tribune., 1902-01-04
WAS A PROSPEROUS YEAR.
Dun's Trade Review Discusses
 the Business of 1901.

Review will say on January 4 The most marvellous of all the phenomenal evidences of ad- vancement in business during the year was the progress made in manufacturing. It is impossible to be too eXtravagant in de-
 lineating. the movements of the industrial world. Never in the history of this or any other na- tion has such development oc-
 cured within the space of 8 twelve-month. The expansion of
 productive capacity was enor- nous, the improved methods of work and organization were con- spicuous, wise economies were in- troduced, but more than all other factors that made for permanent prosperity was the conservative resistance to price influences.
 After the reaction 1900 the level of prices remained depress- ed for some months, but gradual ly responded to the increasing demand as excessive accumula- ton were absorbed. From a con- dition of glut there arose almost a famine greatly exaggerated by the stubborn strike. Some idea of the changes in the size of SUD- plies may be found in the com parison- of furnace stocks of pig iron, as published in the Iron Age which amounted to 559, ,663 tons on January 1. Adjustment of quotations was secured during December after a year of un- reasonably inflated prices. Cop per was stubbornly held at 17c
 most of the time, but when the re- action began there was a fall of 4c within 8 day. Tin was ad- vanced to 28 3-4c in June, but fell to 22c in,December. Similar ity with lead the nominal price, 4 3-8c, was cut to 4c. Tin plates closed the year where they open ed, but in the interim there was an advance of S7 on account of the4amine which followed the strike.
 The records of output for hard and soft coal were surpassed during 1901 despite the scarcity of cars that retarded operations. A feature of great advantage was the expanding export movement which reacled more encouraging proportions than in earlier years, while 1900 was the best year ever experienced by domestic agricul- tural interests, the opening year of the new century was in many ways more profitable, and the two together have put the farm ing population in much the most satisfactory position in the na- tion's history. Formerly the season of harvesting and crop moving brought heavy borrow ings of funds in the east, but the interior conditions have changed to such an extent that western banks are leaders at New York and Chicago and while there is a large movement of money away in the east during the fall months, it is of funds that were held here for the account of interior corres- pondents.
 There is a steady tendency to enlarge the acreage sown in the leading crops yet supplies do not increase, owing to the better de- mand both for home consumption and export. Heat and drought caused a serious curtailment of the corn crop, which proved the most important event of the year. While this influence naturally in duced an advance in prices that practically prohibited exports and thus seriously affected for eign commerce, 1t was by no means an unmixed evil, since the return to growers was even larger than in year of normal production, while the enormous yield of wheat was absorbed by Estock feeding and foreign con- sun1ers in place of corn. Hence