The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-08-16
WALL STREET TALKS
OF STANDARD OIL
Financiers Think Shrinkage is
Due to Those Capitalists
Mr.. VANDERBILT STARTED II
Investors Are Very Grateful to Know
That the Standard Oil People Have
Got What They Want.
An Easier Feeling.
Mr.. VANDERBILT STARTED IT
BY W. c. NICHOLAS.

BY w. G. NICHOLAS.
New York, August 22-Wall street finds
nothing more interesting to talk about
than the plans and doings of the Stand
ard Oil party 1t continues to be the
principal engrossing topic. There is
large element in Wall street holding
firmly to the theory that much OF the
shrinkage in stocks during the last elev-
en- months is due directly to the sinister
influence of this group of capitalists.
There are others who scout this idea
while admitting that the Standard Oll
crowd has been enabled by reason OF the
decline In values to obtain control OF
many properties upon which covetous
eyes have been cast by its leaders. Wal
street has never been able to forget the
remarkable coincidence between the now
famous Frank A. Vanderlip speech and
the beginning of the protracted liquida-
ton. 1t cannot be effaced from the mem
cries of the financial community that
Just before the slump was inaugurated
Mr.. Vanderlip, who is the first vice pres
ident of the leading Standard Oil bank
and recognized as the mouthpiece OF that
interest. delivered an address before
bankers convention in which he sounded
a loud note of warning that the stock
market and the country at large was In
imminent danger on account of over
speculation and unless sail was taken in
Immediately dire disaster would follow
The stock market made its final upward
squirt within the next week or two after
this speech and then began the murder
In, r,ffaa xx-1f
dueed the market value OF securities
more than $3,o0600O,00O
Mr. Vanderlip is still abroad on his
wedding tour and in his absence Mr.
William Rockefeller has gone to the
front as the Standard Oil mouthpiece
He found excuse for the expression or
bullish sentiment in Indignantly denying
reports that the Chicago, Milwaukee and
ST Paul was intending to issue $4,000
600 in new stock and that that corpora
ton was in pressing need of money. He
announced not only that the st. Paul
did not need money but that it had $2O,-
100000 deposited in banks and trust com
panies. Incidentally he dropped the re-
mark that a great majority of stocks and
bonds were now for sale below their
value and were on the bargain counter;
furthermore if the market could demon
strate sufficient strength to advance
points it would easily go up another 20
points. In the financial district the
Rockefeller utterance is considered as a
definition of the changed attitude of the
Standard Oil party and as public adyer-
tisement that it is now willing to see
prices advanced.
1t is a grateful thought to Wall street
and investors in general as well as to
Of lat
the Stndard Oil crowd has got what 1t
wants and that there may be no longer
any occasion for the destruction of val
ues in order that the ambitious plans of
a group of multi millionaires and their
hungry followers may succeed. With the
Standard Oil crowd ION top of the mar
ket" as it Is known to have been for
year, there is no combination of inter-
ests in the street strong enough to COM
bat the tide or willing to go out in the
open in opposition to the allied millions
of that merciless eoterie. Standard OIL
money controls the principal banks in
New York, two of the three great life
insurance companies doing three-fourths
of the life business in the United States,
as well as numerous private agencies for
the control of capital Time and again
during the long decline commits
sion houses and brokerage concerns sup
posedly Independent and able to stand
on their own feet have found themselves
brought up with a round turn for antag-
onizing Standard Oil plans or giving in
diserete utterance to criticisms. Loans
have been called persistently and appar-
emily without reason. Obstacles have
been put in their way, making it diff
cult to secure new loans and enforced
liquidation has followed. In several
cases bankruptcy has resulted.
One striking illustration of the power
of this aggregation is found In the ex-
perience of a big commission and bank
ing house which had the temerity to
stand sponsor for a new corporation
embracing the Henze copper companies
of Montana This concern has several
partners whose combined resources have
been rated as high as $4,000, 900. They
were srong enough to attempt the finan-
cling of several important industrials.
The decline in the stock market found
them loaded up with the securities of
these corporations and they have been
carrying a large burden through the va
rying stages of the depression. Repeat
eddy during the past sixty days the
street has been full of rumors affecting
the solvency of the firm. Time and again
the banks made drives at them and trav-
cling was made as hard as possible. The
firm demonstrated its ability to stand up
against the attacks, but this week the
report has obtained currency and is
commonly believed that they at last ran