The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-13

l fortunately terminated, the volume of
 steel preferred has been greatly reduced,
 making it less unwieldly in the stock
 market and more susceptible to manlpu- l lation. The success with which it was
 advanced this week against the short in 1 terest demonstrated this perfectly. This l advance occurred in the face of informa- tion that the Edgar Thomson and the Joliet works, which produce about 10 per cent. of the company s steel ra1l loh-
 mage. would be closed down pending the settlement of certain labor questions. The United States Steel corporation contem- plates various wage reductions running anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent. The services of many high salaried officials are to be dispensed with. There came a time in the affairs of the United States Steel corporation when the conservative interests said to Mir Morgan in sub stance: You are banker and not steel man. It is time now for you to step aside and let experienced steel men save this business" It was the Standard oil interest in the property that made this suggestion, amounting practically to an ultimatum. MT. Morgan did step aside. His counsels no longer prevail in the affairs of United States Steel corpor- ation. The energies of those who are now in control of the property are direct ed to the problem of reducing the cost or producing steel. The closing down of the works is an argument which Is cal culated greatly to impress the labor ele- ment with which the management has to deal, and is calculated indeed. to show the advisabilty of accepting reduction in wages rather than lose employment all together. A prominent authority on steel and iron conditions is privately quoted in Wall street as saying that the closing down of the works of the United States Steel corporation. at least in some in- stances, Is due more to the desire of the corporation to obtain control of the labor situation than to lack of orders. Steel and iron interests abroad, according to cabled advices being received here are apprehensive of an invasion of foreign markets by the United States Steel cor poration scale never before at tempted by American manufacturers of steel and iron products.
 One of the most interesting economic theories is that the consumption of food stuffs Is rapidly outstrippng production
 as shown by the increased value of the increased crops, and further that the
 areas vet available for growing food stuffs are definitely limited. whereas the consumption will go on increasing pro
 gressively without limit. The truth herein involved has been strongly illustrated this l year in the cotton market. The price of l cotton has been steadily advancing from | around cents per pound to this high | level By the statement .'has been stead 1 fly advancing is meant to be conveyed l that over a period of years the average price has been rising Only three years | ago 10 cent cotton was vision that
 caused the downfall of Price. Mccormick 1 X, ub fni1p1 ;,,
 midst of a bull campaign in that staple. 1 Ten cent cotton appears now to be | thing of the past. When the staple crossed that price many months ago l through the efforts of manipulative n- terests who anticipated conditions which
 have since been generally realized. con- servative interests were loud in their de- nunciation of these same manipulators and predicted that great disaster would overtake them. But one bull clique after another has been in control of the cot ton market. each retiring with enormous profits.
 First 1t was the Price clique; then it was the Sully cique then the New Or leans party took the staple up where Sully left off and pulled it further. The New Orleans clique got out with enor- nous profits and where it left off the Sully clique began again. The trouble is that the consumption or cotton IS out stripping the production. European buy CTS refused to believe the advanced prices of cotton were genuine and held off for months and months. but finally bought on an enormous scale so that our October ex- ports of cotton were the second largest
 in history while the value of the same commodity was much higher in the aver age than ever before. November exports of cotton will be larger still Our cotton
 is the best in the world and commands. therefore. superior prices. All this is very disastrous to the spinning industries of New England and the south: Cotton