The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-02
More Cheerful Feeling Prevails
 on Wall Street
ROCK ISLAND STANDS FIRM
Of Western Roads PrmInent in Wall Street Affairs 1t Alone Has Held It's Own Against the
 Banking Syndicate.
RY W. G. NICHOLAS.

Talbot J. Taylor & Co.,, and although 1t Is yet impossible to write it in anything like complete form, the fragments which are available when pieeed together, give fairly clear idea of how scores are paid off in Wall street The failure en- tailed a loss on James R. Keene which he himself has estimated at si.500000 and which some other people estimate in lar ger figures Talbot J. Taylor is MT. Keene's son-in-law and 1t was In the of flee of Talbot J. Taylor & Go. that the veteran operator made his Wall street Headquarters. He was necessarily tn- volved, more or less in the fortunes of the firm but not to such extent that it's failure would seriously menace his per- sonal fortune. When the suspension was announced and for several days after ward a great many people refused to be- lieve Mr. Keene when he said that his loss would be confined to the S1,500,000 he advanced to tide the firm oyer and in- sisted that MT. Keene had suffered his final defeat in the Wall street game. MT. Keenes personal fortune not only remains unimpaired but his position and standing in Wall street are unaffected. He will have to be reekoned with as stock market power for some time to come barring of course, possible dis qualification on account of health. Two years ago when MT. Keene was at the apex of his prosperity his fortune was estimated at more than S40,000,000. About this time he made handsome settlements on his wife, his son, Foxhall 1<eene, and his daughter, Mrs. Taylor. Some of his friends intimate that he took the further preeantion of so providing for himself that he need never worry in the future, even though the fickle fortune of Wall street should turn against him in his old age He is quite beyond the possi- bility of embarrassment and the eroak- ing of his enemies vas premature.
 But to return to the failure of Talbot J. Taylor & Go. there is not the slightest doubt that important financial interests exerted to use one bankers phrase, the minimum of effort to prevent the firm from going to the wall. A less rever- ent authority says bluntly that certain banking interests were after the Fay iors and sought through them to hit big ger game, meaning MT. Keene. Last au- tumn the Taylors were forced to liquid- ate a large block of National City bank stock. That was the first intimation that Wall street shad that banking interests were hostile to the firm. Previously 6ieck ee First National bank stock had been dislodged from the possession of the Taylors in a manner that did not attract general attention. The National City bank stock was recovered from the Tay- lors by a process known in the vernac ular as standing them on their heads and shaking 1t out of them" Knowing how the firm was situated as to loans, etc. the banks who were party to the transaction brought pressure to bear and continued 1t until the Taylors were sim ply forced to yield and throw the stock on the market It was all taken by Ma tional City bank interests at one price. It has been whispered in banking par lors for several months, in fact ever since this National City bank episode, that an object lesson was to be made of Talbot J. Taylor & Co., On their own account and acting for Mir Keene the firm had been identified with a great many exploits that did not endear them to certain powerful interests. The an- cient feud between Whitney and Keene is too well known to need re-telling. More recent matters may be recalled. mo- tably the bear campaign against Metro politan in which Talbot J. Taylor & Go. figured prominently and MT. Keenes contest with the Union Pacific people questioning their right to withhold div idends on Southern Pacific stock and even the validity of their control of Southern Pacific. because he had bull pool in that stock. When the failure of Talbot J. Taylor x Go. was announced all but one of the financial institutions holding the firms collateral agreed to give 1t time instead of coercing it's stocks on the market at sacrifice prices, and the one institution that refused to do this Is controlled by the banking inter- ests most hostile to MT. Keene.
 In the last analysis of things 1t is the Wall street banks that control the stock market and there Is no appeal from their A,,1 4hnN In dvidual or a crowd is unwiseiy extended they force liquidation by calling loans. This is most always done to conserve the general welfare but sometimes it is necessary to relate, the banks use their tremendous power for ends that strike the outsider as being more private than general The rich western element that became so mighty a speculative force in Wall street two years or more ago had to learn by experience that the banks sit in Judgment upon other peoples stock market operations and permit them by grace of consent and credit to VI. continue or cut them short arbitrarily Us the exlgences of the situation may require. This was thing the western operators did not realize when they set up plants of their own in Wall street and began to borrow their own money and clear their own stocks instead of dlstrib- uting their business among a score or
 
 impossible to conceal operations of such magnitude as theirs. It was nothing un- usual for one western house to have loans aggregatng S50.Oo0,000 or more. Formerly when these western operations were conducted through Wall street houses it was more difficult to trace them By doing the business for them selves western operators exposed their positions and invited all manner of hos tiities. In the end it was these houses that stood the brunt of the liquidation that was forced by the banks Loans were called from them S5,000000 at time. It may be said that the situation de- manded heroic treatment but this would not apologize sufficiently for the fact that the banks encouraged the bull movement that eliminated year ago, furnishing the money to finance it, knowing that the crash must come They turned very suddenly on those whom they had been receiving with smiles and words of appreciation in their banking parlors and forced them to liqudate on scale never before seen in Wall street. That happened last autumn and since then the western contingent has been more conservative in it's operations, having learned that there is everything to gain and nothing to lose in this com munity by concealing ones operations in every possible way. It is impossible for any one to fool the banks. They have an intimate knowledge of everything