The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-08-30

Crop Reports NJ Ost Flattering-Wa1l Street
Bulls Expect an Old Fashioned Cam
paign, and Their Hope Is High-What
the Veterans Say.
Of all the reports on the crop situa-
ton issued during the year by the gen.
| eral government or the various states
| those for August and September are
| considered the most momentous. The
| statements of the agricultural bureau at
| Washington are given out on the 10th of
each month. The figures just furnished
| fully bear out the f1attering accounts re-
| ceived by telegraph and mail from re-
| sponsible sources as well as the hopeful
| expressions of prominent railway Off
Gals who have returned from tours of
inspection over various big systems.
| The increase in money value of this
| years crops will be enormous, and upon
this one fact more than anything else is
predicated the absorption of securities
and the great strength of the markets.
AS the farmer will receive fair COM
pensation for his labor he will be in a
position to spend more for the neces-
saries and Injuries of life. This will be
good for the country storekeeper, which
will be starting point for improve
ment that will be felt in every ramifica-
ton of trade and finance Success of the
agricultural class has been the underly-
ing cause for prosperity at all stages,
and the railroads no less than the mer-
chant and laborer must benefit greatly
during the next year or Is months if the
August crop estimates are not seriously
| cut down by future damage by the ele
ments. The corn crop happens to be the
most important of all this year, as
bounteous yield means plentiful sup
ply Of meats, which enter so largely
into our export trade, and which will
sooner or later result in the return of
some of the gold forwarded to Europe
in the past year.
AS has been pointed out more than
once, comparatively few brokers and
spectators really know what a genuine
bull campaign is like, and they are fool
ishly enough gauging their operations
now by the sporadic rallies that have
occurred off and ON during the past few
years. They profess to believe that the
enhancement in values since the ad-
journment of congress in March last has
more than discounted the enormous adj
dition to the country's wealth by the
phenomenal harvest, now in progress,
and they persist in fighting the rise.
The older heads know better and are in
clined to give the bears all the rope they
| want, with the firm conviction that the
more leeway the latter are given the
quicker will they hang themselves.
Probably the best criterion of the stu
alton is the fact that, while the profess
sional element keeps on selling short,
those closely identified with the rail
roads are buying securities and that
powerful bankers and their friends are
backing the market.
All those who make any pretext of
keeping up with the times know that
the old substantial dividend payers, like
Lake Shore, Northwest and st. Paul
preferred, New York and New Haven,
Morris and Essex, Lackawanna and Del
aware and Hudson, long since passed
from brokers' offices into the tin boxes
of investors, and that there is no longer
any field for speculation in that class.
They also see that the same thing is
now going on in stocks which, while
paying dividends for number of years,
are selling at comparatively low prices,
because they are not yet we'll known to
investors. There is every reason to be-
lieve, therefore, that the granger stocks,
Lake Erie and Western preferred, West
ern Union and Manhattan will become
scarce, and that all properties having
the advantage Of good management and
geographical position will, in time,
move to higher leval. Investors who
are looking for income and spectators
who prefer to trade in stocks the divi-
dends on which pay the cost of carrying
or more are devoting their attention to
such shares as those just named.
At the same time low priced stocks
| are growing more and more in favor,
and Missouri Pacific, Texas Pacific, Wa
bash, Canada Southern, Pittsburg and
Western preferred, Omaha, Wheeling
and Lake Erie, Hooking Valley and
Southern Railway are destined to come
to the front before a great while, pro-
vided, of course, nothing untoward hap
pens to the growing crops. On the other
hand, Erie is gradually settling down
to where it belongs, in view of the prob
able levying of $12 assessment, with
out anything in the way of new securi-
ties to show for it, and Northern Pacif-
ic preferred seems destined to work
down to where other bankrupt proper
ties have gone, since the stockholders in
this case also are confronted with the
probability amounting almost to a GER
tainty of $15 cash assessment. The
chances here, too, are that nothing will
be given to represent this large pay
ment, and when the plan of reorgani-
zation is made public those who look
for any other result will be disappoint-
ed. Nothing definite is known concern
ing Reading matters, but the fact that
the coal trade is acknowledged to be in
poor shape and that the companies will
lose good part of the years profits I'M
less they soon reach an understanding
renders it tolerably certain that the
bankers having the Reading in charge
will promptly reach a conclusion of