The Cairo bulletin., 1907-05-13

ports, rumors of new capital issues
expectations OF trade reaction, strikes
land uncertainty regarding The linan
cial policies Of some OF the largs s
railroad corporations. AS usual, Their
has heen more or less eNaggeration il
these reorts Especially is this trn
concerning the crop outlook which i
mot as bad as repres nted, The fact
Iarc that spring III fully two week
late, ana that cold and wet weathe
i lover large sections OF the countrl
lhaye materially delayed planting ant
.tihe termination Of Sc. d already plant
led. OF course. d late season is some
what 81 z handicap; yet a few days O
continneds warm weather will prob
iably quickly make up for lost time
and much Of the damage has no
ldoabt been eXaggsr rated for specula
tive effect Cotton suffered consider
ably, but the high price of that
Istaple Is probably more justifable by
the prospects OF heavy consumption
| than from prospects of a decrS ased
Iyield. The wheat crop is backward;
| bnt Il is mucn too early to anticipate
any serious injury, and the more re-
liable reports do not substantiate SER
| i0us damage rumors AS for corn
| the most important of all the crops
| that is not yet planted; so the would
be crop killers have been deprived
OF valuable opportunity in that quar-
ter. In short, there is no reason thus
far for any serious alarm in regard to
1.-THE crops
AS for the business situation, a
moderate recession in trade appears
to be generally anticipated and will
in some quarters be actually well
fccmed. aVlues of commodities and
costs Of production are still at such
a high level as to check new enter
prise and involve all future contracts
with exceptional risk. This sense of
danger in the situation is Of Itself
exercising a considerable restraint
upon business transactions, and is
further accentuated by the conserya-
tive action Of bankers, who steadily
refuse to lend their aid as freely as
formerly to untried or new enter
prlses. Pessimism is vastly more pro
nOunced in New York than In any 9th.
er section of the country. This is
largely the result of losses inflicted
in the March collapse which fell most
heavily at this point, though partly
due to the consequent diminished &C
tiyity in speculation. Bank clearings
for April showed decrease of over
10 per cent, compared with last year.
while in Chicago they increased near
ly IS per cent, in Kansas City "a per
cent, st. Louis 8 per cent Omaha 20
per cent, st. Paul % per cent New
Orleans per cent, Galveston 20 per
cent? Philadelphia per cent, Pitts
burg 13 per cent and Boston per
cent The total April clearings in all
cities of the United States outside Of
New York showed a gain of IA per
cent, but as New York includes con
siderably more than one-half of the
grand total clearings. th latter show |
ed a decrease for the month of over
? per cent OF course, considerable |
allowance must be made for lessened |
speculation at this point which af |
fects the total clearings. Neyerthe |
less the above figures show that there |
is no decrease in business transac- |
tons worth serious consideration out |
side Of this city. All advices from the
interior are hat business continues |
on an undiminish d scale. and that |
there are nosigns of abatement in the |
active development of our NATURAL re-
in any part of the country
This is confirmed by the continued |
heavy demand for nearly all iron
products.
Our railroads are still heavily tax
ed with freight, traffic manager all
over the interior being hopeful in
heir views regarding business. Their
chief problem is that OF properly |
handling the raffic which press s up
Dn them. In the month of March II |
roads reported gross earnings of 8
Der cent ahead of the enormous traffic
Of last year. The companies are
therefore still under the urgent neces-
sity of providing bstter facilities. In
the latter they are seriously
by two considerations:
First. the great increase in expense:
md second, the difficulty of securing
capital except at high rates of inter
st In the matter of expense on the
lbove reports II is noted that they
49, per cent over last year
a d. crease of over 2 per cent
n profits. This tendency towards
diminished profits is today character;
site of our business enterprises. IL
S not confined TO railroads alone. but
5 rapidly entering into industrial and
mercantile operations. owing, as stat
ID. te the high cost Of commodities
md labor. The railroads arr really
'acing a serious problepi-that Of pro
riding increased facilities when pro
its are diminishing and rates OF in
crest advancing. Under ordinary cir
they would rcc0up. them
Ives by an advance in freight rates
mt the present state q public opin
on renders such a policy wholly mad
-isable. In consequence. the roads