The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1889-04-27
TRADE AND SPECULATION.

Wall street is paying the penal
ty of years of unwise and extrava
CANT railroad building; or, rather,
II section of the investing public is
suffering the consequences of bad
Judgment, while Wall street is en-
to readiust itself to a
change of conditions affecting the
transportation interests of the
country. Railroad securities have
been the great receptacle for the
investment of accumulated capital.
But the railroad building of the
last few years has been based
mainly upon a certain theory as to
the natural direction of traffic be-
tween the West and the Atlantic
seaboard. The increasing impor-
tance of lake competition, and
of the new routes by way of the
Sault Sainte Marie, creates an en-
tirely new set of problems for rail
road men and financiers to meet.
This is furthes complicated by
the unfavorable financial results OF
the last years operation and the
altogether unnecessary burdens
which some of the Western com
panies have assumed. They have
at once to meet the effect of over
growth, of new conditions in traffic
and of a hostile spirit in legislation.
All of these may be exaggerated.
The situation may be susceptible
of almost immediate Improvement
But the very fact that the Trans
Missouri railroad lines we're nearly
all corporations of the highest
financial standing makes the dis
turbing influence they now exer
else the more severe. The case o
the Burlington & Quincy is excep
tional. That powerful corporation
had to endure last year the mos
severe labor disturbance that ever
fell to the lot of any railroad com
pany. But the evident desire O
investors to part with THAR hold
ings ofits stock is another sympton
of a tendency which has already
borne fruit in the case of til,
Atchison property.
1t is, of course, true that thes
influences are localized to a grea
extent. They do not affect th,
Southern railroads at all, and TIN
situation of the Trunk lines an'
Eastern railroads generally ha
already undergone a process 0
crystallization. Nevertheless, t.
readiust the values of prOpertie
which ranked among the highes
of their class is disturbing. |
seems to be admitted that, thougl
the presidents agreement and tn
suppression OF competitive anarch
may mitigate the violence of til
/ disease, they cannot altOgethe
check it. Consequently speculs
ton in the share market tries t
find a medium for the expression 9
bullish sentiments iii other dire'
tions. Specialties unaffected b
these considerations and CONNER
eial undertakings therefore find il
creased favor.
The latter phase is illustrated b
the interest in such securities a
the "Sugar Refineries," the lea
trust or the Chicago Gas concerl
In some quarters it is thought ths
this is the entering wedge for
complete change i'll the methods I
the stock market. Railroad secur
ties, according to this view, wi
cease to monopolize the aUtentio
of investors and spectators. O
to state it more clearly, CONNIE
cial undertakings will become co
lective instead of individual ente
prises. The New York Stock Il.
change will become field Of dive
i siiied speculation, as London a
ready is.
Such views are strengthened |
the fact that, whatever may be II
case with the railroads, the gene
: al business interests of the COUNT
seem to be on "A healthy, if not I
expanding basis. Spring trade
all the great distributing centers
satisfactory, both as to volume Al
activity. The iron producers, it
true, have no railroad "boomr
aid them. And the competition
the cheap Southern pig iron is st
= affecting the older iron interests
i the North. 1t may even produ
some unpleasant results ia indivi
al cases. But this important
:, dustry, in spite oflaw prices, is II
n in any danger. There is fair q
: rent demand, and apart from I