The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-10

sive as to the outcome of its undertake
ing. There has been talk Of readjust-
ment of the whole scheme, and that IS
probably what will happen The. imam
cial critic of the New York Evening
Post who is more outspoken than any
other pretentious writer on stock market
topics. pointed out the other day that
the only effect of the formation OF the
shipping trust upon ocean commerce SO
far has been to increase the business ana
revenue of the German boats which Mr..
Morgan was unable to bring into MS
combine Tt is no secret that Mr.. MOI
gan paid extrayagant prices for the yes
sells composing the International Mer-
camille Marine fleet and apart from the
apparent financial failure Of the scheme
monopoly of the transportation bust
mes such as Mr. Morgan sought to erect
has not been realized.
There is no denying the fact that the
international Mercantile Marine venture
has hurt Mr.. Morgan's international
prestige, and it would seem to be up to
him to scale down the original proper
tons of the scheme so as to put 1t upon
a workable financial basis. The situa-
ton is all the more embarrassing be-
cause English financial critics predicted
from the outset that the combine would
be financial failure. They attacked 1t
in unmeasured terms, and advised Eng
lish investors to let the shares alone.
Whether the investors needed that advice
or not is an irrelevant question; they
certainly did let the shares alone, and
the critics are now able to say, we
told you So" Mr. Morgan cannot be
unconscious of the strain 1t has put upon
his prestige, and 1t is very certain that
he-i is anxious, to recover the confidence
of the foreign financial public. house
that has had as much as SlOO'OOOooO
worth of credit paper outstanding IN
Europe at one time needs to conserve It's
prestige with extreme care. There was a
time last autumn when the paper of J.
Pierpont Morgan & Co. outstanding in
Europe is said to have amounted to more
than S100, 000. 900. There was so much OF
1t that 1t was not considered good bank
ing to take any more, and for that rea-
son it was Disseminated against. 1t
was in this manner that there arose
the legend one so often hears narrated
in Wall street at low breath that the
paper of j. Pierpont Morgan & Co. sold
last autumn at a discount.
The heavy losses already incurred by
the underwriting syndicate that under
took to float the securities of the In
ternational Mercantile Marine company,
and the difficulties of the Cramps IN
Philadelphia will be made the basis Tor
renewal of the agitation for govern
already apparent, and it is probable that
the campaign viii be well under way be-
fore the new congress meets. Its sue
cess is believed by impartial observers
| to be very dubious. Any ship subsidies
| favoring the grossly over-capitalized In
| ternational Mercantile Marine company
would be violently criticised by the pub
\ lie at large.
It is Wall streets information that a
special session of congress will be con-
yened in October for the purpose of
! enacting a currency reform measure 1t
Is not too much to say that financial IN
! terests here have received assurances to
| that effect from high political sources.
They have also been given pretty clear
! idea of what the administration proposes
to introduce in the way of a currency re-
form bill and are welk satisfied with IT,
| as far as their information goes. 1t IS
| expected to be even more comprehensive
/ than the bill that failed during the short
session of the last congress- 1t is be-
lieved that the elasticity" for which
| 1t will provide will avert the annually
| recurring monetary stringency, when
| Wall street in recent years has come 10
regard as an inevitable incident OF the
| autumn A fact which will illustrate
how confident financial interests are Of
! getting monetary relief in the form OF
| legislation at a special session of con-
eress this year.. is that time loans run
ming well over the end of the year, /. e.,
for nine-month periods, may be had IN
Wall street at the rate of 5A per cent
whereas at this time last year 1t was
| impossible to get such accommodations
The significance of this would seem to
be that banking interests are not appre-
hensive of a serious monetarily stringency
this coming autumn. The Washington
information to which reference has been
made, is not mere gossip, such as one
hears around commission houses; 1t pre-
walls in the best banking circles, and
there is undoubtedly some strong basis
for it, That class of market interests
called the big people" evidently is in
a hurry to bull the market. Their pres
ent inactivity doubtless is due to be-
lief, in the event of this relief being re-
ceived at the hands of congress stocks
may be buled uninterruptedly through
the autumn. Otherwise, you probably
would see these big people making
bull market now, with the idea of work
ing off as many stocks as possible before
the usual autumn monetary ,stringency
would put an end to operations for the
advance.
More than the usual number of brok-
ers and traders are planning vacations in