The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-06
MORE CONFIDENCE
 IN MONEY CIRCLES Secretary Shaw's Announce
 ment of Relief Did It GOSSIP OF WALL S4REET There Is Hardly an Important Banking House in the West That Is Not
 Carrying Eastern Paper.
 Other Financial Talk.
GOSSIP OF WALL S8REET
BY w. e. NICHOLAS.

this sum would be equivalent to an influx of S160 OUv, 900, every dollar in cash repre- senting s4 in credit according to accepted theories. MT. Shaw holds that the gov ernment can get along with working balance of s40OOOOO0 and he is clearly of the belief that the treasury should not lock up any more funds than is necessa- ". Should the demand be sufficient to call into use the S40 COG, ,O0O which Secreta- " Shaw says he can spare the national bank Repositories would then have nearly s2OO, ,OO000O of government cash. This amount is so large that congress will un- questionably be tempted to require the payment of interest by the banks having the use of the money and 1t is not unlike ly that legislation to that effect will be enacted if nothing else is done at Wash ington.
 It Is by no means certain, however, that even the promised S40,000,000 will give as much relief as the business interests of the country require during the autumn and early winter months. The banks and trust companies are filled with great masses of securities for which there is no present market and they will have to car y. would like to see Q bull market it is to their interest at this moment to discour- | age speculation. Their power is being quietly exerted to 'repress speculative en- thusiasm. They frankly state that ehey have no money to finance a bull move ment and that 1t is the part of wisdom to keep prices down and prevent undue ac- tivity in securities. The newspapers, commercial agencies and brokers are hav- | inn AnuI fn hon ia aFn r. ous condition of the western banks and theorize from that fact that there will | be slight demand upon the reserves In eastern banks for crop moving purposes. 1 This idea may prove to be correct but there is one point which seems to be generally oyerloked, namely. the immense amount of money loaned in the west on eastern paper These loans are made out of local funds and as local demanus for accommodations increase it is inevltaJie l that these loans will be called. The eff l feet will be the same as though bank re- | serves in eastern depositories were drawn ! upon directly as eastern borrowers will
 NYe to secure cash at home to meet thew western notes.
 TheSe is hardly an important banking center Nsn the west that is not carrying | eastern papR 2, me of q commcrcial pa per and some of it collatefA notes. This
 is a feature which is unders3-3d by bank ] CTS but not by the community In gen. l eral. That is one reason why the bank rates hold so strong in the face of appar- | ent assurances of a plentiful supply of currency. New York banks are making 1t as hard as possible for mercantile houses to secure time money. They loan grudgingly even to their best customers. It is related that one of the largest mer- cantile houses in New York went to it's bank for money and was met with re- fusal It went down the line applying at other sources, but without success. Whereupon 1t returned to it's own bank and made peremptory demand for money. The firms credit being gilt-edged the bank was obliged to surrender, but it did so only under pressure and exacted 6 per cent with a small commission. This incident Illustrates the prevailing situa- tion and affords a basis for bearish argu- ment against stocks.
 Loud denunclation has been heard on | every hand of the manipulation of cotton, but It is now beginning to be reluctantly conceded that the high prices now pre- | Vailing are attributable as much to condi- tions as to speculative operations. There is no getting around the fact that the vis- ible supply of cotton is the smallest in number of years On account of the high price reached by this staple conditions are now becoming deplorable. New Eng land mills have been closing down, thou l sands Of employees have been thrown out or work and cotton goods prices are be- | ginning to advance. A famine in cotton | is cheerfully predicted by the bull party ] now active in the market, between now | ana the appearance of the new crop The most bitter denunciation of the manipula-
 tion of cotton has come from the New England mill men but they themselves | went In for speculation and sold their actual supplies on the rising market and
 to this fact, no doubt, is partly due their
 high feeling. They have been waiting
 ever since for a collapse in the corner | and are beginning now to realize that they miscalculated not only conditions
 but also the financial strength of the successive bull cliques. On account of the high prices reached, foreign buying l has been restricted to considerable ex- tent, and as cotton constitutes the prin- cipal item of our yearly exports our bal. ance of trade has been suffering In corsc quence
 Evidence does not accumulate in SUD- port of the claim that ous,ness at large | is showing a decided reacI )na.y terden- cy. It is true that there is a prospect of a letting down in the demand for some of
 the products of the iron and steel mills and 1t is also possible that the buying l dnDlIlOH Ol cOnSuineTS IS SHSntiV uuilfu q.
 but there is still an almost universal state of great industrial and commercial activity. Mills and factories of almost
 every kind are still greatly behind in their orders In many branches of industry it is impossible to get work done without a delay of weeks and months. There is | a strong likelihood that the demand for
 steel rails will experience a sharp falling
 off after the turn of the year as railroads | generally are entering upon a policy of
 economy in construction The rail mak-
 CTS, particularly the United States Steel
 corporation, are not alarmed at this out
 look as they are equipped to re-enter the
 foreign field with their goods should the
 home demand fall off and the need arise
 for an old world market Mir Schwab is in evidence as saying that steel rails can
 be made at a profit if the price should go down to S15. It is a notorious fact
 that America can undersell the mills of Great Britain and Germany.
 Wall street is experiencing what is called a weather market. Attention is | being concentrated largely on the crop | situation and the subject of greatest in- | terest Is the specula tion on the possibility l of destructive frosts in the corn belt | Several weeks of immunity from frost | will be necessary for the maturing of the corn crop, and with the dawn of fall | apprehensions increase on that score. The