The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-28

of nr;ces Wall street has been so un- mercifully burned in previous specula- tions in the Chicago grain market thas that some of MT. Rockefellers close It is of history that every important deal on the Chicago Board of Trade under taken by the New Workers has banned out disasterously The most notable ex- perience of this sort was that of James R. Keene nearly twenty-five years ago. The famous Keene corner in Chicago wheat in 1s70-SO cost that gentleman Sl,- 500,000 by his own confession. lie was two years getting rid of the cash wheat which was left on his hands unsold at the end of the speculation More than twenty-four months after the collapse or the corner a forlorn little cargo of dam aged wheat the last of the Keene hold ings turned up in Cadiz where 1t had been consigned by it's American owners.
 The trouble with these commodity corn CTS is that nobody can figure out defi- nitely the loss until the last remnant Of the corpse has been disposed of. Getting rid of the corpse of a commodity corner Is always one of the most expensive fea- lures of the deal It is different with big deal in stocks for there is almost all ways possible to iquidate and get out at some price, although there have been times when the players have been left with a moss of undigested securities on hand. These deals, however. cannot prop rly be described under the head of corn CTS. They can better and more correctly be called miscarriages-deals that went wrong in their execution.
 The big fire insurance companies are not doing much talking these days about " bowling success of the invasion of the foreign field. Results so far as known are that there has been an outlay of tre- mendous sums of money in exploitation and the investment of vast capital in the bonds of foreign nations, which bonds have suffered terrific depreciation. There is no public knowledge as to the exact amount of the money of policy holders ofAme rican life insurance companies sunk in attempts to gain foothold in the old world. Exact facts touching this deli cate subject would be extremely useful to policy holders, although the discolure night be disappointing from an invest ment standpoint. One of the great Amer ican life insurance companies has a great many million dollars invested in Russian bonds-something like $15.0000 0t1 according to the last annual report. The big break in these bonds on the Paris and Berlin Bourses becomes a matter of vital per- sonal interest % the policy holders of such American companies as have undsr-
 
 rule of Russia, Germany, Austria md other European countries to compel fer egn insurance companies seeking to do business within their boundaries to in- vest certain amounts in national funds as an evidence of good faith and sovency. It may not be a comforting thought to American policy holders to contempate the loss of their money in foreign fields when there are so many openings ut If,,, Fz.-
 The French are supposed to have about $1, ,5o0 GOO 090 in Russian bonds. These se- curities have already undergone very great shrnkage in value and according to reports from Paris they are practi- cally unstable on the decline. Americans have small direct interest in the i'll luck or good luck of French investors French men have consistently turned cold shoulder toward American securities. They have little intercourse in a specu- lative or investment way with this coun- try, and but for the fact that holders If American stocks and bonds in England. Germany. Holland and Belgium might be forced to sacrifice their American inter ests to protect themselves nearer home we could look with entire equanimty on Parisian panics As 1t is American will have to suffer somewhat by reason Of the misfortune of our French cousins. They are well able to stand great losses, however. as theirs is the richest country in the world.