The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-16
Southern Has No Interest in L. &
 Ms Present or Future.

| Southern Has No Interest in L. &
 Ms Present or Future.
 l New York, April 15.--Wall Street passed | through one of its most exciting and sem
 sational periods today. The Louisville
 and Nashville situation, which had hung | menacingly over the district for week or more, was cleared by the undisputed statement that John w. Gates and his l associates had wrested control of the property from the Belmont party and were in absolute possession. Accompany ing this statement which had been dis counted the day before. was one that l the Gates faction had selected J. P. Morgan & Co.,. to settle differences be- | tween the contending interests.
 While these events were happening Il | movement without parallel in the hs- tory of the Stock Exchange was on in Southern Railway. Trading in Southern Railway common set in on a tremendous | scale and at one time interest centered
 almost entirely in that stock. '- It became evident before the opening | of the market that a settlement would
 be reached. At the office of J. P. Nor
 gan &Co., a serie sof conferences began before 10 o'clock. Those present during
 the morning were George w. Perkins and William Pearson Hamilton, representing the Morgan interests; August Belmont. Samuel Spencer, Presiden tof the South ern Railway; Edwin Hawley, president of the Iowa Central and Minneapolis and
 St. Louis Roads; John w. Gates, Talbot
 J. Taylor, head of the brokerage firm of
 that name and son in law of James R.
 Keene, and Francis Lynde Stetson, one
 of MT. Morgan's attorneys. This confer
 ence broke up shortly before Il o'clock.
 Mir. Gates was among the first to leave
 and f hoaa bof ha po1tId
 issue a statement telling of a peaceful
 solution of the situation. Shortly before
 noon the announcement was given out by
 the brokerage firm of Harris, Gates & Co.
 It said that MT. Gates and associates had
 purchased control of the Louisville and
 Nashville.
 Mir. Belmont made another hurried visit
 to Morgan & Co.,, soon after the Gates
 statement was issued. He declined to
 say anything as did the Morgan represen-
 tatives. MT. Perkins who had been
 most active in the preliminary negotia-
 tions, seemed at first disposed to say something dealing with the terms arrang
 ed between the Gates and Belmont fac
 tions. He changed his mind. however, and announced that some definite decla-
 ration would be made by the arbiters late in the afternoon. When that time came
 MT. Perkins decided to withhold the
 Morgan statement until late at night.
 Mir. Belmont on hearing of this decided
 to withhold anything he might have for
 publication until the Morgan statement
 had beer issued. MT. Perkins and Mir.
 Belmont were in conference late in the
 afternoon and both said that formal dec-
 larations would be sent out by them be-
 fore midnight
 Throughout the day operations in South
 ern Railway shares continued on an
 enormous scale. The demand was ex-
 traordinary, almost from the outset. The common stock advanced 3 5-S and the pre- ferred 1-2 points. Blocks of 5000 and 10000 shares were common and there was one string of 90 900 shares and another of 37,000 while the trading was at it's height Much of the early buying was attributed to Morgan influence. but it soon became clear that the Gates clique as well as room traders in general were taking a hand in the game. In the first half hour fully 5000 shares of Southern common changed hands By the end of the first hour transactions in this stock alone reached a total of over 350.000 shares By noon considera ble more than half a million shares had changed hands.
 Dealings fell off after that to some ex- tent, but records of the number of shares of single stock sold in one hour, in two hours and in one days trading were all shattered as a result of Southern Rail ways performance today. The total sale for the day reached S6i,500 shares. The total outstanding stock of the company is 100000 shares On April 24.. 1901, there were 662. 800 shares of Union Pacific sold on the New York Stock Exchange during the struggle between the Morgan and Hartman interests which eliminated in the May panic. That record was broken There m order for less than a thousand shares rnuld be executed. The stock sold after the opening at 34 1-2 compared with 34 1-4 last night. There was numerous tluctua- tions before it advanced to 40 1-2 and after the reactions from the top figures.
 About this time there was a marked strength in Illinois Central and Chicago. | Indianapolis, and Louisville (Monon). | based presumably On the belief that these | roads would benefit in some way by the selection of Morgan & Co. as arbitrators of the situation.
 The widest rumors and reports were cir | culated to account for the record break | ing activity of Southern Railway com | mon. Veteran brokers failed to under | stand why Morgan interests should want to increase their holdings of this stock. | Later when it was seen that the Gates | crowd and speculators generally were buying in Southern common the move ment partook of a purely speculative | character, and although the stock con- | tinued enormously active throughout, | heavy proflt-taking sent it below the high l level. In spite of numerous attempts to | rally. the price fel off to 37 3-4 and the | closing was 37 7-S. net gain for the day | of 5-S.
 Louisville and Nashville shares ad- | at the opening, but fell off almost | as soon as the bulge in the Southern | came. Transactions in Louis- vile and Nashville aggregated about 5S.- coo shares, the stock closing at 127, net | loss for the day of point.
 Fully two score brokers were active in the buying and selling of Southern Rail way common. Prominent among these were Talbot J. Tay ylor X Co.,, Van Emburg & Atterbury, A A. Housman x Co., Frank Savin, and J. S Cache X Bouvier, About half the room traders and free Iances' took a hand in the game at one time or other, Harris, Gates & Co were reported to have bought and sold 250OOD shares in the course of the day.
 That the Southern Railway Company will have considerable to say as to the the conviction of most Wall Street men before the close of the day. President Spencer. when asked as to the future re- lations of Southern and Louisville and Louis villc and Nashville made a state ment that the Southern Railway had no interest in the purchase of the l.. and N., and will have no interest in it at any .imc in the future.