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Show : :.::SlO.T7B.FALLI1G OP? Outlco'i, for Better Business Ccnditions, However, Is , i : Generally- Commented Upon. . "? 0 - ' t- x : Special inquiry as to winter wheat shows that east of the Mississippi , G5 except la Ohio, recent weather conditions have been favorable: ' 1 . NETV TORE, March 11. Special telegram' tele-gram' from correspondents of the International In-ternational Mercantile agency tbrough-; tbrough-; out the United States show that spring trade, now about completed, haa fallen , 10 or 15 per cent behind the total volume . distributed la the first two months of The difference is not so great at New . , York, but business In New England is undeniably quiet. Chicago-merchants find the movement of dry goods, cloth-V cloth-V - log. shoes and groceries about equal to that of a year ago, but at St Louis and Louisville there are gains this year over last. Minneapolis and St. Paul explain that the Northwest is very conservative and that business Is about 10 per cent less than la March, 1903, while at Philadelphia Phila-delphia the falling off in metals and some other lines Is as much as 20 per cent.- Pittsburg has felt a Mke decline. but says recent large purchases point to the long-waited turn In the tide. Recent weather conditions have, favored fa-vored steel trade, and a. revival of the building industry which, as shown by the International Mercantile Agency's canvass of the situation at ten of the larger cities of the country points to a decreased volume this year as to value, owing largely to higher costs of labor and raw materials. . Larger New York City contractors ex pect the total will about equal that Of last year. At Philadelphia an increase ls expected of from 15 per cent to 20 per cent and,( judging from the character of new projects at Chicago the year will rival 1903. Out of the burned district Baltimore's building will not vary materially. ma-terially. St Paul and Minneapolis each report a probable decrease of about 10 per cent Philadelphia and Chicago each report a tendency toward a decrease In Industrial Indus-trial wages. Leading metal and agricultural agri-cultural prices incline higher. |