The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-27
Increasing Business With the
Globe Increases Business
for Business Men.
THE REAL MARKET.


Something was said in this column
yesterday about the speculative mar
ket, referring to the tremendous shrink
ages that have taken place in the value
of securities representing inflated capt.
tai and exaggerated values. These have
been unprecedented. The water has
been squeezed out of many lines of
stocks, and the weary stomach of the
public has rejected without even an
effort at digestion the vast mass Of Sc
curities which promoters have attempt
has stood this pressure without sub
stantial injury to business interests is
a proof of our commercial and financial
strength, and joyful witness of the
inability$of mere speculation to lay our
legitimate business low
But there is another portion Of the
market that stands on different basis
and of which a different word must be
said. This is that which deals in prop
critics of different values, whether Sc
curities or actual commodities. And
this too, has felt the pressure of the
times and has not totally withstood it.
Those dealing in sthis real market are
aware of its temper and it's tendencies;
and the daily reports of banking, Of
stocks, of the central markets, declare
them still further. It would be both
foolish and useless to ignore or deny
this patent and potent factor in the sit
uation.
We spoke some time ago of the sharp
declines in securities of whose actual
value and dividend producing quality
there is no more doubt than there is Of
government bonds. They have not re-
covered from the low quotations to
which they were reduced by repeated
assaults upon legitimate capital. No
body is hammering them down today
but they sag and fail to recover simply
because of lack of buyers. Men do not
care to invest in property whose value
remains to be determined. They will
not purchase the stocks of the sound
est enterprise if the federal govern
ment is likely, by and by, to procure a
decree declaring it illegal and worth
less.
Now it would be worse than useless
to deny the existence of the conditions
that have been produced. There is no
panic and there is not going to be any.
The conditions that make for panic.
utterly wild financing and great reck-
1essness by banks and other financial
agencies throughout the country, are
not present. The only greatly inflated
values were those of certain Industrial
securities, and by these promoters and
spectators for the most part were
caught. There is no general prostra-
ton, and there is not going to be. The
country is still too prosperous for that
and its recuperative powers are too
great. But that there is a real slacken-
ing of the wheels, not of speculation
merely, but of real business, only the
foolish would deny.
AT the East there has been very
material and visible decline of general
activity. Business is by no means bad.
but it is dull. There is lack of mar
kets and of buyers. This is one conse-
quence of the attack made upon prop
erty; for there is absolutely nothing In
the world so sensitive as capital to m
favorable breezes. 1t has been helped
by the collapse of speculative enter
prises, which always carries with it an
unfaVorable reflection upon the genu-
Inc. 1t has been aided by the wide
spread of labor troubles, decreasing the
purchasing power of the people. This
alone, if sufficiently pronounced and