The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-14

Ordinarily he would have gone out the front door with hardly the ceremony of a departing handshake from half dog en. It is Q waiting season. Everybody is waiting for the monetary stringency to pass away and for a sign to that ef- feet from the representatives of the bank ing combinations. That sign once given the machinery will once again be set in motion and the public invited to con tribute to the gayety of the game.
 Bank statements, however honestly they may be compiled. are in many respects misleading these days. They do not re- fleet the actual condition as in normal times. They do not represent the true situ-tion with any degree of accuracy They take no account, for instance, of at least two-thirds of the $SS0 GOO 900 added to the aggregate stock of money in this country within the last seven years. Not less than $500. 900 of the increase has apparently disappeared, if we were to judge by the exhibits made by the banks As a matter of fact the larger part of this vanished half billion dollars is in the liveliest kind Of circulation. It is the pocket reserve of millions of individ- uals and represents the spending money carried in the wallets and vest-pockets of multitude of prosperous men and women. People. who during the period of hard times and forced economies. car. ried E in their pockets now carry $. Those who carried s to $1O do not feel comfortable unless they have go, 80 or $40. The $50 man now carries $200 to $500. People have contracted habits of easy spending akin to extravaganza. They let go their money freely but keep their pocket reserve replenished. and so vast amount has apparently been retired from circulation. The effect on bank ciearings and the business of fiscal institutions Is almost the same as if 100 Russell Sages were to lock up $5.000000 each. The mon- ey is not available for large transactions. and to that extent bankers complain Of stringency and grumble because the funds do not come back to the centers as form erly. The trouble seems to be that the people are actually embarrassing the large business affairs of. the country by
 their habits of personal extravaganza in daily expenditures and the habit of car
 rying in their pockets liberal sums to meet these individual outlays. It is a
 curious development of long period or extraordinary prosperity and has not
 been taken into account by the rank and file of bankers.
 A great many important financial mat ters are being held in abeyance partly
 because of the state of money and part | ly because the stock market public is far | from being in an appreciative mood. It is significant for example. that the .au- | tumn bear market and the money strin- gency. the one being the effect of the other, have caused very striking decline | in New Jerseys incorporation business. Only one large company has been incor- norated at Trenton these thirty days last past. Many big projects are all pre- pared to be incorporated, but because the financial world Is not in a receptive state | of mind the incorporation of them IS pe- ing put of. Similarly many things are nending in the stock market, bond issues, new stock issues and the like, which VIII not come out until the monetary situa- | tion clears. There cannot be any bull market with time money ranging between | 6 and per cent. and no important mat | ter is auspiciously introduced except ih | hull market. The disposition of the Read- | ing property is likely to be announced eoon after the speculative situation clears or as soon as the money market | resumes it's normal state. Then there are the Morgan Shipping Combine secu-
 .i.,ss vet to he distributed An Erie bond | issue is numbered among the things prop ahle and in advance of its announcement Ianes R. Keene already Is laying the foundation for a bull campaign in the | Erie issues.
 l If is an article of belief among Wall Street traders that the United states Steel shares are going to be pulled TOT l the bereft of the Shipping Combine. Ihe | I-nited states Steel shares are more wide | lv held in Europe than the shares or any | other American corp oration, more widely | perhaps than the shares of any other | company on earth. They are called MOT i gan stocks, and the Shipping Combine | also is a Morgan undertaking. Now, the
 point is here, that MT. Morgan hopes to
 place a lot of the Shipping Combine's
 bonds abroad and obviously the way to go
 about this will be to put better appear ance upon the Morgan securities already
 held on the other side. Besides this, the
 domestic effect of a rise in the United | States Steel shares would be very great. | It would help a bull market as perhaps
 nothing else would. The floating specu- | lative supply of United States Steel has
 been gradually reduced until now 1t
 stands at a minimum. Commission houses generally are carrying less of the stock than perhaps ever before since
 MT. Keene began to distribute 1t for the
 Morgan party. The suggestion Is that | Steel have been accumulated against a
 bull campaign. The chief objection of professional traders to the Steel stocks
 Is that they move too slowly. Your
 trader wants action and if the SteeIs
 were made active he would doubtless
 take to them kindly.
 From all accounts young Gould and
 young Rockefeller are having-a difficult
 time with their Manhattan. The lease
 of the Manhattan to the Interborough left them with a great deal of stock on
 their hands. The bull campaign neces-
 situated heavy borrowings and lately their
 bankers have been pressing them to scale
 down their loans. The market is not l broad enough to take much Manhattan
 stock at these prices. and there the situa-
 ton rests. All that is needed Is patience.
 Many inside holders of Manhattan re-
 fused to sell at the top because the
 managers of the campaign told them the | stock would touch 175 Others were
 satisfied with 20 points profit and stood | out The stock they sold had to be
 bought by the bull party, which only in | creased It's load. No pool stock has yet