New-York tribune., 1901-03-17
financial.
The Financial World.

attention of the Street by mounting to I5O ,,ar-
ing six point advance in three days. tbera w..
much talk about the cause of the large b,,,,
which sent the price up There was mucb 80
taiA yesterday when Burlington crossed Ie,
making six point advance in less tbs, -"
hours Very wild stories were aAoat
OF 10 for the stock is talked of before :. az
counts the new thing the directors nave -
uPoh- nat thls new thing may be- is known IN
amer e"cies' otherwise the buying of the stoct
would not be so large and persistent: but ., -
hot yet known to the outer circles. nneaning o.
general public. Nevertheless, all Wall St..
had IL yesterday that Burlington was to see 1-y
In referring to its rise to $50 in this co1,,r.-
last week, 1T was mentioned that the r1s :.
substitute Burlington for ST. Paul in the nrotao.
ed transcontinental combination. had rroL~I,
put the directors of the Burlington into a nost
tion where they had as the phrase ror- -.
to do something for the stocxbor5a-... ~,
was what the ST. Paul directors felt 4ba,- -
10 do. when they rejected Mr. Morgau's tar,,,
Whlcn something took the place OF an inrrsos.
IN tne dividend. and the right to subscribe q, No.
Tor more stock We hear that the Burlineto, =,
rectors followed the example of thosa os a.
ST Paul in objecting TO the absorption or ,b,
road; so the missing link in the protected 1,no
the middle link of il. is still missing. Ru, ~.
Burlington directors also felt that sor,.+,t--
must he done 70 justify their attttuda sor.a
thing which would make the Stockholders eor
tented: and hence the rumors that nlun, oe
some KIND was coming. with the big buying Of
the stock in anticipation Of it,
II is said that three important insAras.s ~
been buying. OF these being the dfrac+or,
party. who have relish for being p,t IN
minority But the other parties il Is cIsfn,s5
will have stock enough to give direction ~
though not control. the policy Of the Board
An interesting point about this nattar is H..
the Burlington is the third company wboza
directors have lately been forced into +ha
position OF doing something for the stock
holders by the attempt of other nayrias
to acquire control of the property The
first was the Delaware & Hudson. whose Al.
rectors jumped the dividend unexpectedly from
D to . per cent; then came the St PauI vhass
directors said they had been forced into the same
position as the D. & H board lastly. we have
the Burlington occupying the same position.
Now this suggests the inquiry whether thera
are any other railroad companies hereabouts
whose directors are likely TO have the choice
given them of selling out. of doing something
to raise the buying price of their stock higher
than the other fellows are willing 10 follow
Probably such a concern, or concerns, NAV be
found
Before burlington startled the Street by its
sensational advance yesterday, there had been
a rather lively movement in the fractions. which
was said 10 be due TO the operations of a new
bull pool recently formed in Brooklyn Traction
This pool. however. could scarcely be Responsible
for the way Manhattan climbed yesterday above
10 with a dividend off it only the day before.
Manhattan pays only I per cent, and 4 per
cent stock at 12J is certainly no cheap thing
unless there is something coming and no great
distance off. which will give the stockholders
more for their money than a ( per cent stock
bought at 125 could give. Probably this par
ticular something depends upon negotiations In
progress, and which may Rave reached a stage
which promises If not absolutely assures. sue
cessfuI termination. If this surnise be correct,
and the odds that it is, the buyer of Man
haitian at 125 will find he has made profitable
purchase, When the negotiations are success
fully concluded. there will be no opportunity to
buy the stock at the figure named
very disturbing influence on the market
apparently removed on THURSDAY by dispatches
from the coal regions that the miners had voted
against strike. The situation there would ap-
pear. from later dispatches, not TO be entirely
cleared up; yet there must be sufficient assur-
ance among the big men that the clearing Up
will not be serious operation. they would
not have come into the market and bought
stocks as they did on Thursday after the re-
ceipt of the news. 1t then that the Eries
sprang into renewed life, after quite period Of
comparative neglect, following the trouble with
the St Paul people. II must not be overlooked
that the Erie road has become more than ever
a coal road since it's purchase of the Pennsyl-
vania Coal Company Some ~ or 10 per cent
of the anthracite total production is now allotted
tNs- Of
in the anthracite trade a matter Of some I'M
port To the company In the buying of the
securities on Thursday and Friday. it was noted
that il was specially urgent in the second pre-
feTred stock
This stock then made record price for itself
above 10. Ii was occasionally quoted last De-
cember. around so There are only S169oOVuo
of the stock so that when the time comes that
the Erie first preferred pays per cent diVl-
Gend it viii be calculated that an addition OF
only S66oGNo 10 the sum necessary 10 pay ths'
dividend. will put the second preferred on 'n7
same level The most noteworthy thing aooul
the current talk on the Eries, however, Is tna'
it bears a singular similarity Of tone 10 th@'
which was heard after the Northern Paelnc was
reorcanized Then we used TO hear from the
Morgan and Hill interests that the Dig uio"Sy
Of the future was in Northern Pacific common
stock
Northern Pacific common at that time seemed
much more hopeIessIy out of sight Of a div'dend
than Erie common is now. Yet here 1t Is q
dividend payer So now hear that Erie eoni-
mon stock is the stock out of which the US
money will be made in the future. All thS 'D
den of the talk is Erie common Ol s0ui
this implies Iong investment-long' tha' -
for the average buyer. who. when ne ous'
stock expects il to go up ten points at leAS'
the following week Any investor OF tnis stamp
therefore who buys Erie common around P'e