Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-01
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE pIsPA1cH.l

tsPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPA1cHI
NEW YORK, Feb. 2S-ln his weekly review
of trade Henry Clews says: The causes that
have depressed the stock market for the last
three weeks still continue in force. The dis
position to defer speculation until after the ad-
journment of Congress is general and the
volume of transactions has fallen to about one
third the average amount. February is usually
a dull month; and whatever improvement the
adjournment of Congress may bring is likely to
be more or less counteracted by the hardening
of the money market that usually occurs In
March and eliminates in the first week of
April. While, therefore, the market is likely
to exhibit moro spirit after the 4th of March,
vet it is not unlikely that we may have to wait
until the beginning of April for any really
active and well-sustained movement in stocks;
after which we may expect three or four months
of uninterrupted ease in money, with fair
chance for recovery in the prices of securities
The steadIness with which prices have been
maintained during the prevailing excessive
dullness Is a symptom that deserves attention.
1t implies the comparative absence Of weak
spots in the market and the prevalence of q
respect 1t evidences sound state of affairs
and the expectation of. sooner or later, a
higher range of values. In my Judgment. the
unusually depressing influences affecting the
market for the last five months have predIS-
posed Wall street to very fully, perhaps exces-
siveiv discount the unfavorable factors in the
railroad situations; while the more favorable
factors seem not to have received the full con-
sideration they merit. The railroad interest
appears to have touched its lowest point OF de-
preston about the period of the late panic.
Competition and Granger legislation had then
done their worst and the injury arising from the
corn crop was estimated at its maximum; and
these factors were taken at their full value
when the panic level of prices was reached.
Since that time, important changes beneficiaily
affecting the railroads have occurred. There
can be no doubt that the expenses of operating
and management have been reduced under the
pressure to which the roads have been su ubject.
The pressure has also discouraged the con-
struction of new roads, with the effect of cor
respondIngly checking the most reckless form
of competition.
A break in the ranks of the Farmers Alliance
is threatened by the large element of wage
earners, who find that repression Of the rail-
roads means the discharge of employees and the
reduction of wages. The higher courts, even
in the Granger States are beginning to teach
legislators that laws which do not afford fair
compensation to the common carrier are IN the
nature of unconstitutional conhscatioh--a
position which had been already affirmed by tile
United States supreme Court These facts
very plainly indicate that point has been
at which legislative oppression oil the RAILROADS
Is beginning to give place to juster poli,y.
Another element calculated 70 affect railroad
investments favGrably is the failure of the free
coinage scheme under circumstances which
foreshadow its early dismissal from public at
tention as a political issue. As that. issue
stands to-day, it affords little real reason for
apprehension Of any departure from the gold
standard of values In the United States; and
when this fact comes to be duly appreciated in
Europe. it can hardly fail to raise American in
vestments in the estimation of foreign invest
ors and relieve the New York market of its
present surplus of stocks. The foregoing may
be reckoned as among the conditions conducive
to future Improvement in securities, the an
tlcipation of which IS the main cause OF the
undertone of strength which the market NOW
exhibits.
, The currency movement at the banks results