The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-17

Of the year at per cent. There is be- |
sides, the prospect of financial relief this |
autumn In the inactment of a currency
reform measure by congress at a special
session. Indeed, banking interests gener-
ally are less apprehensive than they usu-
ally are at this season of a really serious
autumn stringency in the money market
The clouds are Of another character. 1t
is extremely probable that a number of
underwriting syndicates which are heav-
lily obligated in undigested securities will
be called upon to take up these securf
ties and this will mean an awkward
shifting of Wall street burdens. For
many of these securities there is no mar
ket at all. In this class might be included
the securities of the International Mer-
camille Marine and the United States
Ship Building company. In order to take
them up the various subscribers to the
underwriting syndicates may be ccmpell-
ed to sacrifice good stocks for which
there is market. The Standard Oil
crowd, possessing superior facilities of
banking information is in a position to
judge this phase of the situation as no
future attitude toward the market will
depend upon the outcome or these I'M
derwriting combinations. Not being in
volved itself 1t will be in a position, in
the event of enforced liquidation of good
stocks in order to take up unstable Sc
curities, to stand under with an open bag.
Meantime all other financial interests are
striving to an altogether different end.
The Standard Oil crowd is the only COM
bination that can afford at this juncture
to maintain negative attitude. The
Kuhn-Loeb crowd, the Morgan party, the
Gould contingent and the pennsylvania
coterie are believed to be arrayed on the
bull side.
There appears to be a strong bear party
at work in the shares of United States
Steel corporation. The public interest In
the steel stocks is larger than In the Sc
curities of any other corporation on earth.
If 1t had not been for James r. Keene,
who managed for the Morgan party the
most extraordinary distributive campaign
ever known some of the big insiders
would, in all probability, be loaded still
with a surplus of steel shares, especially
the common stock. 1t is said to have re-
quired three weeks to make out the
! United States Steel certificates that were
sold to small New England investors
through the bucket shops alone. 1t is
pretty generally admitted by Wall street
experts that it was a mistake to put
United States Steel common on per
cent basis. AS a per cent stock 1t is
selling nearly 30 points lower than Ten
nessee Coal & Iron, which is a non-div-
idend paying security. Tennessee Coal &
pect of dividends 1t is not, however, a
| fair comparison, because the volume of
| Steel common is so very much greater
| than Tennessee Coal & Iron. In the
minds of shrewd observers, 1t is ques-
ton whether Steel common would be SELL
ing any lower than 1t is II it We're only
a per cent stock. The common stock of
the United States Steel corporation is
! generally understood to represent the wa
ter of the big combine. There is, in
round figures, S5000O00OO of 1t. The COM
mon stock has been selling under DO, and
the preferred stock in the SOS for a year
| or more. The mean quotations for two
years would probably be something like
40 for the common stock and 80 for the
preferred. The fact remains, however,
that the United States Steel corporation
has been paying dividends on the par
value of its water, these dividends
amounting to about $40, 900 a year.
| This becomes a very striking fact when
| 1t is remembered that after an existence
of only two years in the most prosperous
period steel and iron Industries have ever
known the United States Steel corpora
! ton needed to issue bonds to raise $780,
! 100000 cash for improvements, etc. 1t was
not conservative at any rate. to start
Steel common on a per cent dividend
basis. 1t will be remembered that the
| first dividend on the stock was announced
as payment of per cent without any
intimation as to whether 1t was a quar-
| terly dividend or what. A heated discuss
sion arose, and several days after 1t was
officially announced that the dividend was
a quarterly one, and that the stock had
| been put permanently on a per cent
basis. All this happened while James R.
Keene was conducting his memorable
campaign. of distribution. The promoters
and big insiders were very anxious to sell
their common stock.
| 1t has been whispered around in stock
market circles for several weeks that the
various big steel companies although ex-
ceedingly busy with business on hand
were not booking new orders as heavily
as they should like to be doing. These
intimations were ridicued by the trade
authorities here and were generally dis
missed as mere gossip probably inspired
by the bear party In United States Steel
shares. 1t was a shock to Wall street.
| therefore, to hear this week that the
Jones & Laughlin company of Pittsburg
had cut the prices of steel bilets on new
orders SO a ton. There has also been a
declining tendency revealed in pig iron
prices both on the Northern and South