The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-28
ACUTE DYSPEPSIA
 IN WALL STREET. Operators Look on the Future
 With Gloom STOCKS ARE DEPRESSED Prediction That Better Times Are in Store Are Viewed skeptically,
 and the War News is
 Also a Factor.
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

cred through the hardgest of hard win ters and has been in unspeakable dis
 tress over the panics in the foreign
 Bourses It has analysed gloomily the reports of decreased railroad earnings and
 the reduced volume of general trade. It
 has been full of forebodings over the
 prospective disquiet incident to the ap- preaching national conventions and the
 presidential campaign It has been full
 of fear that the trying winter might ruin
 the winter wheat crop and throw the en-
 tire agricultural situation out of joint
 In brief Wall street has been suffering
 the bangs of acute dyspepsia and noth- ing goes right. It observes with grim disfavor the efforts of the cheerful mind ed to look on the bright side of affairs
 and will have nothing of It.
 The prices of many important stocks
 have approached the low mark of last year, notably Pennsylvania, New York Central and steel. A number of high
 priced securities or ''fancies as they are called, have tumbled precipitately. Lack awanna which has just gone through the
 best year in it's history broke 111a points points one day on the sale of 300 shares. The Electrcs, Pullman Palace Car, Con
 soldated Gas and other of the gild edged
 things broke badly on the forced sale
 of ridiculously small lots. Other stocks l of notoriously less intrinsic value. but in greater speculative favor, held fairly well l although gradually declining in obedience
 to the general tendency. To those un- | familiar with the practical operations of | the stock market this situation appears | unnatural and strained, yet it is not so, 1 The apparent stubborness of speculative | securities is due almost wholly to the l active presence of the room traders or
 scalpers, who are not infrequently de- scribed as the "gambling element or the
 mere gamblers who use the legitimate machinery of the exchanges to bet on l fluctuations Those who indulge in this
 kind of writing and talk are prone to take a superficial view The room trad CTS and scapers perform q very useful l office in the arena of the stock and com modity markets. They keep the markets | in a liquid" state so to speak. and give i to those with the real goods to sell or real money to invest chance to do bus | mess at current quotations. If all stocks could be kept liquid there would be no l sharp breaks of ,. 10 and 15 points on a
 sale of a few hundred shares and neither
 would buyers be obliged to pay above
 market prices. As matters stand traders 1 feel reasonable sense of security when l they confine their operations to the ac- 1 tive stocks. They can get in and out of 1 5000 or 10000 shares of Pennsylvania,
 Amalgamated Sopper St. Paul Rock Is- land. Steel preferred Union Pacific, Soul thern Pacific, sugar or any other of the 1 active issues much easier and with less l risk than 300 shares of Laekawanna, Con solidated Gas General Electric, Pullman, | Ioalo nd of. Mort h we Sf orr
 That is because the mere gamblers or room traders let the "fancies" alone and | to the mercy of the specialists. The same 1 thing Is observable in the inactive options in corn, wheat, cotton and coffee. The
 inactive stocks and the inactive options in commodities are consequently shunned
 by experienced traders and the great
 volume of business is concentrated, in di- rections popularized by the talent.
 The recent heavy decline in the bonds
 of European nations is largely due to l the growing belief that the Russo-Japa-
 nese war will be one of long duration and | that 1t may involve other countries. Stan
 dard oil advices. which are the best in l the United States confirm this belief. It was through Standard oil sources that 1 Wall street was first advised of the hope | lessness of peace between Russia ana | Japan MT. Rockefeller through his at | tornev aatly denied the report which | leaked into Wall stree. that he had saic there would be war. This denial was es- | pecially notable from the fact that 1t was | the second time in twenty years that the | ma gnate had been betrayed into making 1 an authorized statement of any kind for | the public. Yet within two weeks after
 the denial the open rupture occurred and
 war was on, Now the same people who
 were responsible for the original war bull
 letin are saying that the fight is likely
 to last five years at least. MT. Rocke-
 feller has not contradicted this state
 ment and probably will not as those who are giving 1t currency are not making use 1 of his name as they did before. lnci- detnally it may be remarked that the Standard oil authorities and their asso- | ciates take the view that long war will be to the benefit of American securities,
 although temporarily prices may be de-
 pressed The Standard oil petition is un-
 derstood to be bullish on the long pull | although bearish for the time being.
 Another bit of Standard oil gossip is
 that some of Mrs Rockefeller's close l friends have been and are still connected
 with MT. Ogden Armour in his gigantic
 operations in the Chicago wheat market The Standard oil crowd may be said tc have formally adopted young MT. Armour as an active ally. P. D. Armour, the | founder of the Armour fortunes, and Johr | D. Rockefeller had many points in com
 mon. They were both great merchants They did business along much the same lines. Their hands were always against
 the middleman and their energies directed to the elimination of all intermediates between the manufacturer or produced and the consumer It was in the absorp ton of the profits of the middleman that | they attribute the largest accretions tS their own bank accounts. In the carry ing out of this policy they were merciless
 and their business careers were marked
 by the wreck and ruin of thousands upor | thousands of men and firms occupying | the middle ground between buyers ant
 sellers. It Is only natural therefore, that | MT Rockefeller and his associates should have friendly feeling for the son and heir of P D. Armour. Young Armour is
 too rich and strong to openly antagonizt and he has accordingly been taken in.
 Wall street proper has not gone crazy
 over grain speculation this year. The New York produce exchange crowd has been in the play and a rule on the bear side The so-called western contin- | gent, by which Is meant the westerners l who have moved into New York during I the last few years and have their con- nections with the Chicago private wire | houses established here has made money on the upside of grain and stll appears to be disposed to look for a higher range