The times., 1901-06-18

| Business was larger. and the interest of
ne public greater than at any time last
| week.
| The reasons for the better tone in the
| market were not in the least mysterious.
| he railways advanced because of the be-
! lief that the Western harmony plan has
gone through, and because the Missouri
Pacific people held their meeting and de-
clared a dividend, the first in ten years.
| The industrials advanced because there
was talk in several important quarters
of outside iron and steel companies be
ing bought up by the trust. More than is
known regarding any of these matters
would be necessary in order to make any
prediction worth while on what the stock
market will do next. The street talks
bullishly, promising its friends that the
present summer is to be an exception to
the rule of summer dulness. and that the
level OF prices is to be advanced many
dollars a share. Less eXuberant people
are inclined to believe that. important as
ed in large measure by the immense ad-
NanceS already scored during the past
eight months. There can be no question,
however, that the boom up to the present
time has been justified in a large meas
ure by the developments, which are far
larger and more all-embracing than was
generally supposed by people outside the
inner circle. The outsiders that were far
sighted enough to expect general unifica-
ton of interests did not look for its ac-
complishment in such a maryelously short
period of time. Prices in the Western Sc
cur1ties generally have reached a price
that Is unattractive to conservative peo-
pie, even though they may be pushed
hlSher, ana all such VIII do well to keep
out OF them A few securities are not yet
selling at their actual worth measured
by earnings and dividends. The safest
way TO deal in the present market is to
buy such securities on the declines. Short
sales look attractive TO many, but mani
testify they are gamble
The present understanding Of the Union
Pacihc-St Paul deal is that the St Paul
mas been bought by the Union Pacific.
with the Northwestern perhaps a second
party IN the purchase. The terms of the
purchase viii be much like those Of the
burlington DEAL il is said $4,000 Union
Pachc per cent bonds for 100 shares of
81. Paul stock, or at the rate of 200 for
the stock. 1t is evident that knowledge of
this deal or a suspicion of il has been
the cause Of the wonderful strength of
the St. Paul during the past week or
more. The price yesterday went up TO
1875, an advance OF twenty-five points in
few days. Evidently If such terms are
actually TO be made the stock is worth
quite as much as Burlington, or around
200. The only difficulty in the matter is
the uncertainty whether. after all the
deal VIII go through. The first St Paul
deal failed ignominiously when some of
the people closest to the inside made eX-
plicit statements that it was already as
good as closed.
1t is difficult to see how Union Pacific
stock Is helped by the new deal. 1t will
necessitate a still larger issue of Union
Pacinc bonds, perhaps the largest bonded
Indebtedness. all told, the world ever saw.
To be sure, the st. Paul is at present
earning a larger surplus over its dividend
than the Burlington, and the wisdom
Of the purchase is certainly no more ques-
tionable than that Of the Burlington.
But it is not in the single deal for the
control of the st. Paul that the chief
rRf eeraf sit
If the stories told generally in the street
are to be credited this deal completes
the community Of interests plan" for
the W estern railways As now described
this plan gives all the Northwestern lines
TO the Hlll-MOrgan clique, the central
Western lines to the Hartmann Rookie
feller interests, and the Southwestern
lines 10 the Goulds, the RockefeIlers be
ing interested in this section also. The
parties Of each group are said to have
stocks in all the other groups. In a gen
eral way It is said that all of these lines
Will be run in complete harmony. with
no cutting Of rates possible. Mr.. Morgan
and Mr. Hartman are understood 10 have
been slated for general supervision over
the entire management Of the systems
The two questions for investors to con
slider are whether the plan has really
been carried through, and whether, if it
has, st. Paul, and Burlington. .andAtchison
common, and Southern Pacific and the
other stocks have not already advanced
sufficiently far TO discount all the benefits
future. 1t must be remembered always
that the insiders have not been working
in the dark. that they probably bought
all the stock they wanted, except in a
few cases. at much lower prices than the
present level 1t happens not infrequentIy
that the announcement Of such an i'm
portant piece Of news is the signal for
the insiders to sell out.
The statement is made that the man
ayers Of the Chicago Great Western, the
NHfe-F.F eHfW IL
the three chief systems not yet placed
in the community Of interests plan, have
expressed themselves as in harmony with
the object of the big deal, and perfectly
otherwise further the interests of peace
This, however, is not an entirely salts
factory arrangement, as any railway man
VIII say oh-hand. 1t makes the entire |
deal much less than a complete success. |
1t leaves the way open for the breaking
Of agreements from the beginning II is |
probable that these lines will have to be |
secured by the community of interests |
people. no matter what price is paid This |
condition of things, it will be seen, looks !
suspicious for the stocks of the outside
lines. The Chicago Great Western seciIrf-
ties especially have many friends at pres
ent.
The Missouri Pacific directors yesterday
met and declared semi-annual dividend
Of ~ per cent. thus establishing the sys-
TEN on a per cent basis, ana providing
for the first dividend in exactly ten years
The directors also arranged for the issu-
ance Of new stock. 1t is understood that
Sl5, 0Q9, 600 will be given TO Messrs. Gould !
and Rockefeller for their convertible
bonds. and that an additional block OF
the stock will be issued for other pur-
poses. or this latter sum. stockholders
are to be allowed to subscribe for IS per
cent Of their present holdings at par. The
right Is worth at present somewhat less
than T. Missouri Pacific. like St Paul and
Burlington, and indeed nearly all the
Western securities, had decline yester-
day afternoon. It began to go off soon
after the dividend announcement was
ma1n and clnscd af I92Ek ehnu.ir,, a M