The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-18
Is Seen i'm Almost All Branches
OfBusiness.
Higher Temperature Is Still
Needed in Some Quarters.
RAILWAY EARNINGS
Show a Gain of 81 Over Same
Week Last Year.
Manufacturing Plants Are Gem
tiers of Great Activity.

New York, March 1s.-R. G. Dun &
Co.'S Weekly Review of Trade says:
Higher temperature is still needed to
bring out full spring activity at many
points, but improvement is discerned in
almost all departments Mercantile
payments are also more prompt. Rail
way earnings. which have been falling
behind in comparison with last year,
were 81 per cent larger for the first
week of March and there Is COMPARE
lively little complaint of freight con-
gestion. Manufacturing plants, espec-
tally in the iron and steel industry,
show great activity. Floods have done
same damage on the Pacific coast, but
farming prospects tEere. as in most
other sections. are decidedly favorable.
Large farm reserves of corn and oats
are not accompanied by depressed
prices. and the small wheat stocks are
tons. Foreign commerce relations
show unprecedented imports in Febru-
sry and for the last week at this port
alone there was an increase of $685.
period of 1904, while exports rose ST.,
759.31S.
Good progress is noted in conditions
at pig iron furnaces and steel mills.
Hides continue firm. Fall contracts
come to shoe manufacturers in very
small volume. Textile industries are
making good progress, prices ruling
firm with slight increase in the de-
mand for cotton goods. Little new ex-
port business is noted
In the wooden goods division prices
Of new lines show the expected advance
over last season.
Failures this week numbered $50 in
the United States against 229 last year.
and rs in Canada compared with p a
year ago"
Bradstreet's says:
Spring trade and outdoor activities
ga Ter force as the month advances
Better wea Their, small interior stocks
and confidence in the future industry
cause wider distribution in all sections
except the south. where considerable
1rregularity appears Dry goods.
clothing, groceries, shoes, hardware,
farm implements, lumber and build
ing material show relatively most ac-
"All reports indicate great activity
In railway circles. Complaints of ca
shortages still come though the sit
uation has improved slightly. Gross
receipts for January gained S per cent.
while net increased Il per cent. Col
lecuons stin light, but money has
turned frmer-
a feature of the spring outlook is
the confidence in a very large amount
of building being done in nearly all
parts Of the country Pacific coast
lumber interests report continued i'm
provement-
1.-THE central west, northwest and
south send the best reports. but there
is expansion noted at leading eastern
markets. and even cotton goods are
taken more freely at the east. helped
by the late advance in raw cotton.
From the Pacific coast good re-
ports come, particularly from Los An
geles.
''Iron and steel production and
consumption alike break all records.
Finishing mills are crowded with
business and four months time is de-
Franded for deliveries on new, orders. |
Foreign orders for rails are a factor.
Railway material is being bought
freely for domestic account"