The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-07

such as that which has been seen this year proceeds without motives, and It Is pretty well understood by this time that the object on the part of the Roeke- feller contingent in this case was to ac- quire some cheap stocks, particularly Pennsylvania and New York Central. Possibly, also, with the idea of acquiring a dominant interest in at least one of these properties viz, New York Central. One of the Rockefellers was large sub scriber to the Pennsylvania underwrit- ing. The underwriting syndicate agrees to take the new stock at 120, and gets a commission of PIE per cent for doing It.
 It is seen, therefore, that the stock the Standard oil crowd gets through It's par ticipation in the underwriting will cost in 1171k, which is almost like finding it.
 By using St. Paul as a club against the market, the Standard OH crowd not only served a speculative purpose in that stock, but gained absolute control of the movements of the entire stock market. All traders regard St. Paul as the pivo- cal speculative stock, it being an axio- matic saying that as St. Paul goes so goes the market. You could no more bull the stock market with St. Paul going down than you could bear 1t with St. Paul going up. Having unloaded the surplus of speculative St. Paul stock around and above 190, It was obviously to the interest of the Rockefeller crowd to break 1t. and while doing that it's purposes were served in other quarters of the market. There has been mys- terious shifting of New York Central holdings. Certificates in the names of people close to the Vanderbits and even in the names of vanderbilts themselves have been delivered around the street lately, and, on the other hand, there has been large absorption of the stock on scale buying orders. It Is confidently be- lieved that the control of the property Is changing Nobody will regret 1t. The management of the New York Central has not been all that could be desired. The policy of Wm. K. Vanderbilt has been the subject of much criticism He has insisted upon retaining the maxi mum of authority while devoting a min imum amount of his time to the details of the management. The subordinate of f1cers have thus been handicapped. Some of the best railroad men in the country are on the New York Central staff, but they have been denied free hand An aggressive era in the affairs of the com pany Is greatly to be desired.
 Attention has recently been called in this correspondence to the United States
 
 trust finance that would have to be done over again It has been done over. The capitalization has been sealed down nearly 50 per cent, and the reorganiza- ton was accompanied by an extraordin- ary statement in which the following confusion occurred: In many instances where profits have been reported. 1t was found on re-examination that the com pany has sustained losses instead of making profits" It was confessed fur ther that misleading reports had been made and accepted concerning the con dition of various companies taken Into the combine and various other mistakes Ito use the most charitable word possi- ble in the circumstances-were discov- cred in the course of this re-eXamina- ton. It Is less than a year ago that the securities of the United States Ship Building company were offered to the public. Fortunately they have never been distributed, the public evincing from the beginning lack of confidence therein. A comparison of the prospectus issued at the time of the floatation of the combine with the confession of the re- organization committee makes very striking contrast and causes plain men to wonder what would have happened If the securities of the combine had been dis tributed to the public. In an undigested mass they nearly caused the failure of the Trust company of the Republic The financial writer of the New York Even ing Post, who is more forward in his ex- pressons of opinion than most financial critics goes so far as to suggest that actual fraud has been committed upon the public in this matter. It was due largely to the insistence of MT. Charles M. Schwab that the United States Ship building company's finances were so rap idly reorganized. Many of the insiders desired the process to be less severe, but MT. Schwab insisted, under threat of di- vorcing the Bethlehem Steel company from the combine. that the company be placed at once upon 8 workable financial basis. It Is said that he personally di- vided the $2g0O,0O0 in cash involved in the reorganization. Until this time his interest in the United States Shipbuild- ing company had been more or less pass i've, although very large. The Bethle- hem Steel company, the most important constituent of the combine. was controll- ed by him before being put into the United States Shipbuilding company. Upon returning from Europe, MT. Schwab made a thorough investigation of the combines condition, and practi- cally forced upon the promoters the rad teal plan of reorganization that has been adopted. MT. SchWaO was not In any way responsible for the inflated basis up- on which 1t was attempted to finance the company at the start
 Irrespective of whether it Is bear sit- uation or not. Irrespective also of daily fluctuations, some of the most expert judges of speculative phenomena in Wall street believe that the market is on the bottom. and that a substantial advance from this level will begin. It is not un- reasonable to expect a gradually improv- ing stock market during June and July. Banking sentiment is more optimistic on the ground that many stocks are intrin- sically cheap at the prices now prevail Ing James R. Keene Is believed to be friendly to the market. Several of the most prominent operators in the street are bullish on the outlook The tactics of the professional bear crowd indicate that it Is feeding for the bottom" It holds merely a trading position on the market. It covers it's short stocks and puts them out again, scalping from 1 to per cent on each turn. There are vari- ous specialists around the room who are supplied with scale buying orders just below the present level of prices, and these orders form a support through which 1t will be very difficult for the bear traders to depress stocks. It re- mains only for the Standard Oil crowd to remove it's weight from the market There Is reason to believe that its atti- tude Is more friendly, Its objects in the