The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1901-05-11
Symptom of the Passing of
the Competitive Age" :"
GREAT GROUND SWELL
The Cause Sought in the General
Expansion.
AFTER THE WORLDS TRADE
The New American Giants-Shrewd
Guess at Their Titanic
Plans.
Special to The Journal.

Special to The Journal.
New York, May 1.-THE rise in one
stock this week finds no parallel in stock
market history. In 1895 Northern Pacific
Common sold at 21s and up to January 1
of the present year its highest price was
77A All Wall street watched the huctu
ations in open-eyed wonder and is quot
ing James R. Keene's famous saying:
Wall street is full of wooden men,
'Tis a strange game and merry one
while it lasts, this Wall street game. All
night long clerks and bookkeepers have
been hard at work balancing the books
and making the records of the transfers
Of stocks. Pass through certain sections
Of Wall street at midnight and the officers
are as brilliantly lighted as the Tenderloin.
OF course this sort of thing cannot be kept
up indefinitely for not only the brokers
but the clerks and the bookkeepers must
inevitably go down under the strain. So
to-day has been made holiday.
The Banks as a Check.
In times of great excitement over stocks
the banks generally put up the rate of
money, not so much for the purpose Of
getting the ''slice" of the profits that are
made in speculation as TO prevent the
market from running wild. Sometimes
this action of the banks does have an
excellent influence on checking the wild
ness Of the speculation, but at other
times the market appears TO break away
from banks and bankers. brokers and
money lenders and no matter how high
the rate of interest forced by those who
let the coin of the realm on securities.
borrowers flock from all directions and
the demand for money seems to exceed the
supply, the rate Of interest making not a
farthing's difference OF course in the
long run and the end, the high rate at
tFacts considerable capital from the west
ern and southern banks and a steady
stream of money may be expected to flow
to the Metropolis for few days longer.
Expansion as a Cause.
Those who are accustomed to analyze
the stock market in the light of cause
and effect are of the opinion that the
high prices paid for railway shares in
dieate a tremendous forward advance in
the markets Of the world. The slight
falling OF in exports for the past month
or two is not regarded with any degree
of anxiety. The fact that England has
placed an export duty upon coal is taken
as an indication of the condition of af-
fairs in the future despite the fact that
1t is claimed the duty is so small that it
viii not allow American coal to enter into
very many coal markets in Central and
South America. Europe and the Orient,
where the British coal is now handled
at profit. 1t is not the tax of a shilling
ton that makes the difference, argue the
students OF finance and political economy
in this city. 1t is the fact that it has
been found necessary to institute any tax
whatever. The vast taxes now necessary
10 carry on the Boer war; the large ex-
penditures required to keep up the Brit
1sh army and navy; the fact that the
old worlds supremacy in steel and iron
and cotton and thousand and one things.
IS being threatened, finds nowhere a surer
reneX than in that barometer men call
Wall street Argued from the standpoint
OF international commerce, there is moth
ing surprising in the recent industrial
and railway boom which is now attract
ing the attention of tens of thousands of
persons who have invested and are in
Festing in stocks.
ISvasiOn of the Worlds Markets.
Taking q broad view Of the situation ii
is apparent, therefore, to the conserva-
tives here that the men who control the
money Of America have determined upon
an invasion Of the markets of the world
in fashion heretofore undreamed Of in
the worlds history. Up to within the past
few years, roughly speaking, Americans
concerned themselves only with American
Investments And vast blocks of securities
like the American railroad stocks and
bonds. American brewery and other shares
were held in England and on continental
Europe. This meant the sending abroad
of hundreds of millions of money as in
terest charges annually. Within the past
few years the balance of power has ap-
parently shifted, most of the American
debts have been 1iquidated and the Euro
pean statesmen and hnanciers who gave
the matter any thought undoubtedly sup
posed that the trade Of the UnitedsStates
would be confined to the new world. The
rapid formation of the United Steel Cor
poratien, the pooling of the issues OF the
coal producers. and the passing of the
control Of the American railways into the