The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-25

 in many months The public is neverthe- less in the market on a very extensive scale More than a million men and women own stocks in the various corpora tions whose securities are dealt In on the New York Stock Exchange. These are the people who are In and under the mar ket. They give 1t strength and character. The big pools and syndicates will take advantage of the rallies to unload some of the stuff they took over on the big break last fall This feature will proha- bly, characterize the entire bull move ment until it eliminates. Recessions such as have been witnessed during the past two weeks serve the useful purpose of discouraging "shoe string gambling and speculation on light margins. It keeps the market solvent and drives poorly equipped speculators away. The mone- tary situation is becoming easier every day and railroad and industrial earnings are in every way satisfactory.
 The strongest peorle in Wall street make no secret of the fact that they are unqualifiedly bullish on the general busi- ness situation. They do not think the era of prosperity has reached the apex, but that good times will continue at least through another year. If 1903 should be blessed with good crops there is seeming ly no reason why there should he a seri- ous setback There has not been import ant over-production in anything, and the purchasing power. of the people of the United States is seemingly inexhaustible.
 Tobacco Trust.
 Speaking of trusts, the Street. hears that the tobacco trust is not meeting with the expected measure of success in its at- tempts to break into and monopoize the retail trade. The large number of pre- h<.. ts..I.. here and elsewhere for a target for con- certed attack, and there is little doubt that the boycott against trust-made goods is being worked with harmful results. The effect on tobacco securities is not marked as yet, one reason being that there are no speculative tobacco stocks in the mar ket In It's grand scheme of financial re- construction a year or two ago, the shares of the several allied corporations were retired and made a basis for the issuance of collateral trust bonds for an immense amount. Previous to that time tobacco stocks were actively traded In and were quite as much in favor as sugar or steel shares. Now the tobacco magnates who used to work the market in their own specialties are forced to play other peo- ple's games. They have no COW of their own to milk. They find the situation un-, satisfactory, and there is talk of another liHdHcidi Te-OTBdnlZdtlOn .anQ the issuing of new line of securities which will give the street. something to play with in tobacco. A variety of plans to effect this are under consideration. and 1t Is said to be reasonably certain that one of them will be adopted
 Brokerage Offices on Ships.
 Stock exchange people are beginning to talk seriously about establishing broker age offices on the ocean liners, and giv- ing passengers to and from Europe an op- portunity to speculate in securities, using the wireless system for the transmission of messages. The playing of that game of chess in mid-ocean by the use of Marconi- grams has done more to direct the at- tention of business men to the practical used to which wireless communication may be put than any other development thus far Neither the steamship people nor the brokers have as yet any clear idea just how trading in st ocks can be done, but they are bginning to think it Is not such a visionary proposition after all, and predictions are freely heard that within year continuous wireless quota tions can be sent any distance from shore. It is an interesting subject and Wall street men like to talk about 1t in their leisure moments.
 DeForrest Crowd Complain.
 The DeForrest wireless crowd com plain bitterly that they are not being given fair show They insist they have the only really practicable wireless device and say their inventions are covered by innumeraole patents. They claim to be able to do more than Marconi has eyer dreamed of doing, and that they are en- titled to at least as much consideration as the gifted Italian, If for no other req son that the inventor Is American born and a Yale graduate The cynics fail to see the relevancy of that suggestion and are disposed to make light of the DeForrest claims, despite the urgency they are forced upon the attention of those specially interested in the subjects. However, it is by no means sure that the DeForest invention is not equal or super for to Marconis. Litigation to establish the rights of the two inventors was com menced three or four months ago, but 1t would appear that nothing has been done except filing suits. wonder with what mental sensations Wall street bankers have read the re-