The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-19
]. P. MORGAN GETS
 COLD SYMPATHY
Wall Street is Not Worried
 About Merger Decision
MANY SCHEMES BLOCKED
Interview of John skelton Williams Gives Much Tone to the General Feeling That Country Is Big
 ger Than Wall Street.
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

BY w. G. NICHOLAS.
 New York, April 1s-cold sympathy is extended to J. Pierpont Morgan, J. J. Hill and their associates in the Northern Securities company. The financial conn munity has recovered it's composure and has ceased to look upon the court de- cision in the case as injurious to intrinsic values or in any way likely to embarrass legitimate enterprises Wall street lost its head for a day or two and hysterical panic in prices resulted. On the break there was general buying of good seeuri- ties by the bargain hunters and at the present time commission houses are barer of stocks than they have been in two or three years The wedding out of weak accounts seems to have been very thorough, according to all reports.
 It is not cause for grief to learn that the worst hurt interests are those chiefly responsible for the creation of the mass of undigested securities and for the formation of mergers now branded as illegal It is an open secret in Wall street that very influential banking cliques have been hard hit and that they have seen disappear within the last ninety days. large part of the vast profits of the preceding three or four years. It is not suggested, even most remotely, that these people are in danger financially as they were wonderfully strong to begin with and they are strong yet-strong seemingly beyond the faintest possibility of trouble. One exceedingly pretentious institution much in the public eye and usually supplied with vast sums of loan able funds for use in the street has it. self been a borrower on huge scale lately. It has been very circumspect in raising money and the fact that 1t is a borrower Is known to comparatively few. One of these few is rival banking house of great prominence. Gilt-edged securities were offered as collateral for the money obtained and so the element of charity did not enter into the transaction. A curious feature about it, however, Is that the borrowing concern re-loaned most of the money in the street at less rate of interest than it paid the purpose of the play evidently being to forestall any gossip which might be started if 1t should be apparently short of loanable cash. It was the first time in twenty years that this house has been obliged to resort to such an expedient to maintain its standing in Wall street. The house in question is reputed to be as strong as the Bank of England and prob aoly is, but for the moment it is carrying a larger load of undigested securities than is comfortable.
 Wall street has thought of little else this week excepting the Northern Se- curites decision There was no time last week for the street to judge of it's mar ket significance. The market had to un- dergo the actual test before that could be ascertaned. At first blush timid people A.1-. cod by ex-Attorney General Griggs that the court finding was revolutionary and that it threatened universal disturbance. This view has materially changed as a result of a very general discussion which has been going on in the newspapers and among lawyers. bankers and merchants. The overwhelming concensus of opinion is that the decision does not threaten legiti- mate enterprise and that the country is in no manner in danger because an am- bilious group of financiers have been called down in their attempts to over ride and circumvent the laws enacted to prevent combinations in restraint of trade. The financiers in question and many of their admirers and imitators had been left free and undisturbed so long that they had almost ceased to look upon the law as worth serious con sideratlon or obedience if found to in- terfere with their operations. The les son of the decision and the consequent discussion which most solemnly impress es Wall street Is the fact that the coun- try as whole Is bigger than Wall street and that laws are framed for observance in the financial community as well as else where An interview by John Skelton Williams. president of the Seaboard Air Line, gave direction and form to this view of the case and contributed as much as anything to a restoration of confidence and recovery from speculative hysteria.
 The effect of the decision Is going to be far-reaching without doubt. It prom ises to block many grand schemes of railroad consolidation and bring down to earth many heads that were in the clouds. Combination was unquestionably taking form not wholly to the interest or ad- vantage of the public. It is now proposed to move on Washington next winter and force congress to so change the laws that the interrupted plans may be re- sumed. This scheme Is seriously discussed in high financial quarters. The states men, however, are quick to catch the drift of public sentiment and are going on record already against any such proposition, being convinced of the wis dom and effectiveness of the antitrust laws already on the statute books. Mem bers of congress have a keen realizing sense of the truth of the statement fre- duently made by the late Joseph Medill, the veteran Chicago editor that there are more bakers, butchers and farmers than there are bankers and railroad presidents and when it comes to a question of get ting votes the multitudes must be con- suited before the minority.
 Attorney-General Knox is to be con suited by the attorneys for the Northern Securities company and asked for con- struction of the decision in it's bearing on the payment or suspension of divi- dends by the defendant corporation. The lawyers at first decided offhand that the dividends would not be interrupted. They have since confessed a doubt as to whether they might not be mistaken in this and will ask the head of the de- partment of justice what he thinks about