Akron Smoking Pipe is doing a good business

FALL BUSINESS PROPSECTS.

The industrial prosperity of the United States continues in full tide, and the prospect for business in the electrical and allied lines of trade in this country for the fall of 1902 is most excellent. For five years the country has enjoyed unexampled prosperity, and there is yet no sign of diminution in the volume of business. Crop prospects are very good. It is estimated that the corn harvest alone will make 2,333,000 carloads of 30 tons each. With 50 cars in each train, this would load 46,600 trains. The railroads, which are large buyers in good times, are making huge purchases now. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company will place orders for 100 locomotives in a short time. The same company bought 100 engines in June and ordered 50 some time ago, which are now being delivered. These large purchases are but a sample of the way in which managers are fortifying themselves with new engines and cars. In the last few days it has been announced that the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company has leased from a car trust 25 locomotives and 2,300 cars adapted to handling coal and coke. The Missouri Pacific and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern have received 95 new engines since January 1st and 50 more are contracted for delivery before the close of the year.

Turning to waterborne commerce, the upward tendency is the same. Total shipments from ports on the Great Lakes for the first seven months in 1901 were 19,653,334 tons, as compared with 26,876,004 tons for the same period of 1902, showing a gain of 7,222,670 tons, or 36.7 per cent. As much as 16,568,899 tons passed the Sault Ste. Marie canals for the first seven months of this year, against 11,548,192 tons in 1901, and 12,775,246 tons in 1900. Traffic in iron and steel originating in southern producing territory during the first seven months of this year amounted to 1,131,275 tons, compared with 857,760 tons for the corresponding period of 1901. In almost every avenue of industry there is great activity and an increasing volume of business. As the electrical business is interwoven with the manufacturing, mining and commercial enterprises of the country, there is no reason to doubt its continued prosperity for some time to come.

The anthracite-coal strike is the one depressing influence, but that has not seriously affected the electrical industry as yet, and a settlement is promised within two weeks.

After a slight backward tendency in the early part of the year the electrical exports in July showed a marked increase when compared with the corresponding month of last year. There is no reason why this increase should not be kept up during the fall and winter, especially as reports from Germany show an improvement in the commercial situation in that country, thus giving some prospect that the German electrical manufacturers will not be forced to bid for business on the ruinously low prices made in that country for the last two or three years.

It is a pleasure; in closing this very brief review of the business situation, to say that there is certainly every reason to anticipate good trade for the manufacturers and dealers of apparatus in electrical and allied lines during the closing months of 1902 and as far beyond that as one may venture to look. This is the opinion of the Western Electrician, and it is corroborated by the views of many electrical business men of prominence, as will be seen by the following expressions of opinion collected for this issue.

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PORCELAIN

Akron Smoking Pipe Company (by C. Fenton), Mogadore, Ohio: Business is very good, and the prospects for fall trade are excellent. We cannot see anything that will bar this year from being an exceptional period for the insulator business in all its branches, as building has been very heavy throughout all sections of the country, and it is only natural that the electrical industry has shared to a greater extent than ever before in the general prosperity.

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