The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-05
Financiers Who Dubbed Him
 Farmer Now Say Good Boy
HAS CHANGED HIS POLICY
After Assuring Wall Street That H Was Not the Whole Thing, He Now Takes the Concern
 In Partnership.
BY W. G. NICHOLS.

New York; October 4--(speciaL) L)-Sec. retary Shaw has been the leading figurs in Wall street this week. He has been un- dergoing a new experience. He has been secretary of the treasury for several months, but it is the first time he has been copspiouously in the center of the stage as a great market factor. It can. not be said that he wholly enjoys the notoriety attaching to the role assumed. Among the things which Secretary Shaw has learned this week is that he cannot please everybody. He may have had an inkling Of this before he entered the field of nigh finance, but now he is assured of the fact. When he entered upon the duties of secretary of the treasury, Wall street took a prejudice against him and called him farmer" At the outset he confessed frankly that he did not think 1 Wall street was the center of the uni. verse, and intimated that in his manage inent of the government finances he would consult the interests of the country at large in preference to those of the street"
 Changed His Views.
 Since he took hold, however, he seems to have changed his mind somewhat re. garding the importance of Wall street and to lave obtained a revised under standing of the relations between the financial center and the rest of the coun. try. So radical has been his change of heart and mind in this respect that he is now accused of having put the United States government into open partnership with Wall street. He has gone surther than any of his predecessors and com mitted the department to a line of policy which none of them ever cared to adors. War street Is still calling hun a "farna- CT, t is batting him on the back anu 7 say ing good boy, good boy while from the outside canes a storm cf unfriendly criticism and comment, and from across the waters floats intimations that the foreigners are. looking askance at the head of the fnancial arm of the govern. ment. All this conflicting storm of at. tentfon has made the secretary nervous and during his visits to the lower part of the island this week he showed tho strain he was under. It was the comment of newspaper men who hocked about hin, that he looked like a man who had slept all night in his clothes
 Based the Market.
 Leaving discussion aside however on the merits or demerits of the departure. 1t is conceded on every hand that the secretary's release of $40,00O,OO0 in money has at once eased the market and given the business men of the entire country new confidence in their ability to obtain funds with which to carry the enormous activities of the nation through a period of stress occasioned by too much pros- perity." That is a disease from which recovery is certain, and any embarrass- ment occasioned by over-much business and too abundant prosperity can, in the nature of things be only temporary. Hence 1t is that the street" is gettfna ready for a resumption of speculative &C., tivity later on, possibly delaying aggres- sive action until November or December. l That another bull movement is sure to occur seems to be the almost universal 1 opinion but bankers and conservative l commission men are at this time strongly urging extreme caution in investments l and suggesting that it is d proper time to l hold off and give legitimate business q chance at the surplus capital. The advice is being generally followed.
 The Ship Combine.
 Two deals of great importance came to a head this week about which Wall street has been disturbed for a good while. One is the consummation of the American ship combine involving some thing less than $2OO. and a commer- cial treaty between the British govern ment on one side and J. Pierpont Morgan on the other. The second event of inn l portance was the closing of the Louis- vile and Nashville deal whereby MT Morgan and his associates took control of that system of railroads and bodily l transferred it to the Atlantic Coast Line, small corporation but abundantIy SUD- piled with the sinews of war by tho l Morgan combination The Louisville and l Nashville deal is supposed to have net | ted John w. Gates, the Chicago plunger 1 and his friend Edwin Hawley between l $S,000,000 and $10,000,000 clear profit. The l original seizure of the control of the Louisville and Nashville by Messrs. Gates and Hawley was one of the most sensational incidents that ever occurred in Wall street.
 Morgan's Steel Trust Profits. | The payment of another $100oo,000 to | the subscribers of the Steel Trust Under | writing Syndicate makes $40.000.000 in all | paid to this lucky coterie within the last | year and there still remains large ball. ance to their credit--just how much Is not | known. but 1t is thought to be not less 1 than $25 GOO, 900. Experts have figured that | the syndicate ought to realize about ESQ., l 900 900 in the clear, but there Is the un- known item of expenses which may cut l down the total when the final balance l sheet Is made up. The syndicate re- 1 ceived as an outright gift common and | preferred stock to the face value of $130,- l 900 900 for guaranteeing the successful | Notation of the corporation. MT. Nor 1 gan is accountable to no one for the op- | erations of the syndicate, he having created 1t and been given it's sole man | agement It Is commonly understood that | he and his firm will net at least $2OOo0.oo0 | in profits from the transaction, although l it was given out ostentatiously at the | start that his fee for organizing the bl- l lion dollar steel trust would be only l about $S00000 The steel syndicate grab | is the most gigantic in Wall street annals