Omaha daily bee., 1911-04-30
DULL TIMES FOR The BROKERS
Wall Street Men Look Into Future
and See Bitter Times Ahead.
GENERAL BUSINESS VERY GOOD
Agricultural Conditions sound to the
Core and an Optimistic view f.
Taken by Those who Make
Predictions.
ny PRESTON =. ADAMS

BY PRESTON c. ADAMS.
/ NEW YORK, April So.-(Special to The
! Bee(-The stock market continues to
break records of dizziness. with painful
| regularity for brokers. All sorts OF eX-
cuses have been advanced to account for
| the dulness and the optimistic Wall street
men still are seeing better times Just
with the persistence OF "a Mexican manana.
| IL would seem as though the stock had
made the discovery of perpetual tmmov-
| In the meantime the general business
| of the country goes along in nice salts
/ factory manner paying apparently no
particular attention to the sutterings OF
/ the business heart Of the country as the
region down about the stock exchange
| loves to think of itself.
l do not write to be understood to say
! there is anything like boom on in any
particular line. As a matter of fact there
! is a general spirit Of caution and a dispo-
sition to reasonable economy which makes
| for soundness.
Conditions sound Mt Base.
! The Simmonds Hardware company OF St
Louis is one of the largest agricultural
implement distributors in the country.
II employs a large staff of travelling sales
men, and in order to guage the prospects
of it's own business conducts a systematic
inquiry through these statesmen into most
recent reports from statesmen on the agri-
cultural prospects and general business
conditions Agricultural conditions, as
whole, are fundamentally sound and the
winter wheat crop, which is the only gem
orally growing crop OF Importance at pres
ent Is in most excellent condition Con-
siderable damage is reported from the
Kansas and the western portion OF Okla
homa, because of dry weather and winter
killing. In these districts moderate
the acreage planted in oats. Some damage,
though not extensive nor of serious nature,
is likewise reported from western Ne
braska, because of dry weather. Some
damage by Hessian fly is reported from
southern Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, but
nothing of serious moment. Beyond this
the story Is of unusually good condition
all over the winter wheat belt and of as
excellent a promise in general as can be
hoped for The decrease in acreage Is
confined almost entirely to those sections
Of the wheat belt and the southwest where
dry weather has prevailed, while other
portions in general show some Increase.
AS a whole, there appears to be mod
crate increase in acreage over this time
last year of about 21a per cent.
The general story all over the country
is that a larger acreage than ever before
Is being planted in cotton and all grains,
in fact, in all farm products.
Farmers are said to be generally buying
freely Of farm implements. and especially
of better grades and higher types.
obligations Falling Due.
During 1911 and 1912 our railroad COM
panes have bonds and notes and equip
ment obligations falling due to the total
of SAB, 0S5 $50, against a grand total for
all corporations last year of $5OO576lOO.
The current years railroad maturities ag-
gregate $256,lS615O; the 1912 total is only
road and industrial companies was S274,-
344 500 and in 1908 03,5l3,Sl.
Since January, 1907, the output Of new
bonds, notes and stocks by railroad, trac- -
ton industrial and mining corporations
has reached, according to the record of
The Journal of Congress the hugh total
of So 671, 150,SS0, of which bonds have con-
tributed 1924 63i. 1873, notes Sll57,l5hSO2' and
stocks 81, $50, 357, 345
TURTLES aggregate $1,62l 1870, or about 20
per cent of the new issues for similar
falling due have been included only In
part, it may be computed that some 30
per cent of the capital raised each year
goes for refunding or for redemption pur-
poses.
J. C. Maben, president of the Sloss Shelf
uncertain for the iron trade and will con-
tinue until the many uncertainties, in
Guiding the supreme court decisions and a
definite idea of what congress intends to
do in its present session in the matter of
tariff revision, are out of the way. In an
interview he said:
gard. The demand is nothing to speak OF,
although we are disposng of a compare
lively large aggregate tonnage each MONTH
made up of small lots. But taking the
a whole there is nothing that
| can see that would tend to improve con-
ditions TO any great extent over the next
few months at least Sloss now has 10000
tons of pig iron stacked in its yards, the
largest tonnage ever reported which In
market over the last several months.
However, we are operating at low cost
and can now turn out iron below ~ ton
on an average. We have four blast fur
naces in operation and these four furnaces
are turning out more iron at present than
was produced by five furnaces previously.
One of our furnaces, the smallest one we
are operating which is on the eighth yeafA
of blast on the same lining, averages Pa IN
tons a day during March. AS to earnings,
IT was generally expected that our first
quarter would not show up very favorably.
However, we earned our preferred dividend
and showed a small surplus after its pay
ment."
Building Work Falls Off.
decrease of u per cent In building
operations in sixty of the principal cities
Of the country i'm March, compared with
March 1910, is shown by report issued by
News.
Permits were taken out in March in sixty -
cities for the construction of 2l,675 build
ings, involving an estimated cost OF $685.
senting an investment of SIS 6115l3 for the
same month a year ago. This is a decrease
OF III buildings and $9,430,53s, or IL per cent.
This is not considered "A bad showing. 1t
we're in New York, where there was a big
drop OF "A per cent, as compared with loss
OF SIS per cent in Brooklyn and only per
cent in Chicago, while Boston shows an
Increase of per cent and Philadelphia
per cent making the aspect for the month
decidedly spotted, but 1t is believed that
with a more settled condition OF the weather
construction will proceed upon satisfac-
tory basis.
A group Of interior coast cities continue
to make a good showing, notably Louis
VILE with a gain Of ga per cent Indian
apoIis g. Cincinnati IS, Cleveland ?, MIL
,vaukee IA, PittsbuTS IS, Rochester 22 Fort
Wayne 90 San Diego 124, Los Angeles %.