OCR Text |
Show Steady Rates for Lead. Lead has remained very steady at the rates created by the recent decline, but we still observe the same tendency to obtain ob-tain higher prices at the West, which would indicate that the center of the buying buy-ing lead circle has moved out to Chicago and St. Louis. At the former point 300 tons sold at $4.40, and at St. "Louis as much more at $4.35, while at New York the sales were at $4.55 and the best, bids only $4.50, or about 10 cents below a par-. ity; counting freight. The East has become be-come in the lead market what Europe has in copper, a sort of dumping ground of all surplus, so that the main market can be maintained at higher figures. The policy , for sellers is unquestionably , a ood one, but the Western manufacturers o not profit by it. Producing districts give feeble promise of increasing their, output, and we can reliantly encourage miners to work vigorously, with the as-surance.of as-surance.of obtaining round prices for lead during the entire spring,all the reduction-in-tariff talk to the contrary notwithstanding, notwith-standing, as no tariff action" would take effect for months at least. ;r , |