The times., 1900-12-30

| 'Ex dividend.
J The reasons that have worked togstfer
( 10 produce the boom and that will con
! tinue II for several months TO come ac-
! coTding 10 the opinions OF some conserva-
| tive people in the financial world. are
numerous and important. The reports of
railway earnings received during the past
year are an index to one OF the bullish
! items in the situation. When the rail
ways are earning mere money than ever
| before. when their earnings have been
| increasing by leaps and bounds for six
years past, il is not surprising that the
railway securities should advance in
price. When added to this fact is the
! immense deal among .the railway mag
mates to secure complete harmony in the
future and ensure stable and profitable
rates the surprising fact is that the adj
vance did not start sooner and has not
extended further. The December gross
earnings are the largest on record for The
month. The increase in earnings for the
second week of December was about s
per cent and the increase for the third
week so far as the statements have been
received was at least 10 per cent. More
and more lines that have been showing
decreases during the dull months of the
summer are now swinging into line with
large increases regularly. The grangers
and the Pacific lines which felt the effect
OF q poor wheat crcp- for some months.
now show immense returns every week,
as witness the weekly statements CT the
ct. Paul and the Northern Pacific.
The November net earnings statements,
too, are nearly all excellent. In a few
instances where special conditions have
intervened. as In the case of the anthra-
cite coalers, with their expensive strike,
these net earnings are not the best on
record but throughout the country gem
orally the showing has never before been
so good. The result of this great pros
perity for the railways will. of course,
be that dividends will be increased where
they have not been already. Stocks that
have never been On the dividend list will
begin TO participate in the disbursements.
This kind of argument is the bes; in the
world.
Cheap money furnishes an inducenent
TO investors and spectators the impor-
tance Of which can hardly be over-esti-
mated. Twenty years ago the high-priced
grangers werc selling even above their
present level, and the general level of
prices was nearly as high as 1t is now.
At that time money was loaning regularly
at nearly double the rates that can be
higher rate of Interest There were no
bonds were 8 per cents usually. A stock
that paid dividend of per cent regular
ly had TO compete with any number of
other investments that paid we'll. Now
investments are getting down to and
3 IL per cent basis very rapidly. This
will mean that, ether things being equal,
railway and Industrial stocks will sell at
from so TO 100 per cent higher than they
did twenty years ago.
OF general business conditions, the pros
perity OF the iron trade, the bigness OF the
crops and the high prices obtained In the
past two years, the development of Amer
ican manufactures, the famine of coal in
the outside world and the big demand for
IL here. the tremendous increase OF the
export trade the confidence OF business
men in general, there has been enough
written already and reiterated many times
to convince most Wall Street people that
the period of great expansion is arriving.
This makes public buying, and also It has
made during the past six months the
largest buying for insiders that has ever
taken place Intrinsic conditions are
much, but when they are present in the
fullest degree Il Is still needful that the
insiders shall absorb stocks and boom
prices and that the public shall follow
them. F.
advanced further than careful people ex
pected from the known facts regarding
their intrinsic value, but in all such cases
there is the large probability that the
public has not known all the facts. The
sEyrocketing of Northern Pacific and st.
Paul are instances OF this kind. st. Paul IS
selling higher than Government bonds
At its present price the return to the in
vestor is only 3.4 per cent. Northern Pa
cihc has been put ON a per cent basis
only short time, and many people con-
sidered this action of the directors fool
hardy one. But now it is discovered that
there is the community OF ownership
In the Northwest. If not even closer ties
between these lines. and the Importance OF
this is so great that these prices are no
longer to be considered too high. They
are not nearly as high as they viii be, in
all probability IL all that is promised is
developed during the coming two or three
months.
The bank statement yesterday was an
excellent one. The surplus reserve is now
$l2, ,525, 900. as the result of an increase
Of more than 81, ,000, 600 The cash showed
an increase of nearly $4,000, 600 The fig
ures are as follows:
Reserves increased -S2, OBS, 800
Loans increased. ed........................ g,3JS J1
Specie increased. d...................... 2.07s 200
Legals increased d...................... 3,l9G, 400
Deposits increased d................... Ij.Ssi, SO
Circulation increased. l3s,oo0
The advance of ST. Paul, and to a lesser
extent in Northern Pacific, was the sensa-
tion yesterday. ST. Paul doomed up TO
is7, the highest price for many years, and
one that the majority of street people
would have considered entirely out of the
question a few weeks ago. On a 5 per
cent basis, OF course, such a price is not
justified even in such good stock as st.
Paul, but there seems little reason to