The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-08


 his friends must let go their grip or be overwhelmed.
 Sully has thus far maintained his grip on the market. but he has a formidable job ahead of him to hold his own His profits are said to be immense, but they are largely on paper, as was the case when Joe Letter ran his famous wheat corner few years ago. It is one thing to run winning deal on paper and quite a different proposition to get away with the proceeds in hard cash. In nine cases out of ten corners and deals in agricul- tural products result in disastrous fall- ure. Daniel J. Sully is a new man in the big speculative arena. He halls from Providence, R. l., where he was a cotton broker with influential connections with the New England spinners. When he took hold of the cotton market his entire fortune Is not supposed to have exceeded S5O0,0O0-a very slim capital with which to corner a $400, 1000, 900 crop.
 The Steel Trust.
 Under the Steel Trust conversion, the | s3O0, 000O00 of preferred stock which still remains unretired becomes in reality, lit- tie more than first common stock. The second mortgage bonds of $25O 000000 are placed ahead of 1t. In the opinion of competent iron and steeel men. the entire plant of the steel trust could be dnpll- Cateu TOT dn amount less than IS repre- sented by the first and second mortgage bond issues. which aggregate S555, 0OO,O OO0 The conversion scheme will yield Morgan and his syndicate S10, 000 GOO commission In the background there is d supplement-. al plan to retire the remaining $900, 00O- GOO preferred stock and issue 5 per cent bonds in substitution. This would result in saving of S60OO,OO0 more annually in dividend and interest accounts.
 IncidpntallN. alSo Uould yield an- other $15.000000 in commissions to the Morgan syndicate, if the same terms should be made as in the present in- stance. Then when hard times come the company might be released from fixed charges on S550, 100000 second mort gage bonds by re-converting these obli- gations into stock upon which dividends would not have to be paid unless earned. There should be another commission in that. Beautiful system. Double dis counts the best endless chain ever welded.
 IT. A. Harrison, "curb broker has just paid $S2,000 for a seat on the New York stock exchange This Is the record figure down to date $S1.500 having been the highest price previously paid. The purchaser of a "priviege" on the ex- change has to pay about s2.O00 in fees of one sort or another which raises the cost Of Harrisons seat to SSl,000. The mem bers of the exchange are complaining | that business is dull, but it would ap- | pear that they value their privileges as members of the big Wall street trading | club very highly. These lofty prices tend | to elevate and maintain the morality of | the exchange. Members who might not otherwise be above temptation are con- | strained to strict observance of the rules of honesty through fear of losing a for | tune in the forfeit of their membership. | A feature of the stock market during | the last few days of scattered liquidation was the buying of secureties "on a scale. | by the great banking combinations. This | is regarded by experts as a sure precur- | sor of a bull market. It indicates a hardening at the bottom-the building in of firm foundation, ana preparation l for the punishm ent of short sellers.