The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-13
TONE OF WEAKNESS
 IS STILL EVIDENT Heavy Pressure on MetropoIl- tan Street Railway HE MARKET IS QUlESCENI Many Reasons Are Given for Present Hesitation and Stagnation Which
 Threaten Such Serious
 Consequences.
HE MARKET IS QUIESCGNT

New York, March 12.-The stock mar ket developed some activity today and a rather positive tone of weakness. The weakness was largely sympathetic with the pressure upon individual stocks, es- pecially Metropolitan Street railway and Metropolitan securities. The liquidation in these two stocks gave signs of urgen- cy and cost the former 4ss points and the latter points. The selling was unex- plained by any news and was thought likely to be due to settlement of one or two large estates largely interested in the spculativ world.
 The obscurity of the motive of the sell ing gave it sinister effect. Pennsylva- nia was also freely pressed for and broke through the support which had been in evidence above 112. The price touched 111h, which Is only % above the low point since the last stock issue started its long decline. The selling of Delaware and Hudson was supposed to be to provide funds for subscription to the new stock offered The market har- dened on short covering in spite of the continued weakness of the two Metro politan stocks and the closing was firm. United States Steel was rather conspicu- ous in the recovery. The decrease in loans shown by the bank statement was contrary to expectations. The bank statement was of little influence, how ever, as the present condition of the money market gives little occasion for solicitude. The steadiness of Northern Securities on the curb had a dissuasive influence on traders who sold stocks yesterday to discount possible decision in the supreme court on Monday Total sales of bonds, par value, $9450OO.
 The market Is absolutely unresponsive to news developments, whether favor able or unfavorabe and lies inert to the despair of all who look to stocks and bonds for their profits. At the full com mission of 1s of per cent on orders al- lowed by the rules of the stock exchange Thursdays sales of 7300O shares would yield about $1S25, allowing the commits sion both to the buyer and the seller. The membership of the stock exchange numbers HOO But the meagre dealings are largely made up of dealings amongst members themselves or of orders given by one member to another, on which the commission is less, ranging down to S2 on 100 shares of stock.
 From the present standpoint of cool re- nectlOn and eXpe11ence the eXceSSlNe spec ulative exalation of past times, seems a sufficient warning in itself, of the violent realization which has followed in accord ance with history of all great movements. The revulsion of sentiment on the part of the outside world has been accentuated by the revelations of the interruptions methods employed in the formation of some of the corporations whose shares were offered to the public and the flag rant manipulation by which the Notation was furthered.
 The assumption that the legal obstacles offered to the process of combination were the direct causes of the breaking up of the carnival of speculation. sharpens the influence attributed to the Northern Securities decision, which is awaited with a feverish anxiety from week to week, and almost day to day.
 The declining tendency of railroad earn ings and traffic and of bank clearings, the accumulation of idle reserves in bank ing centers, the obscure outcome of the coming years crop, the doubt over the supply of cotton to be finally disclosed by the present years crop, the drop in the values of country's exports as a conse- uuence of the speculative level at which prices of commodities are held, the small earnings to be achieved on the heavy ex- penditures now making by the railroads. the uncertainties surrounding the war in the far east, and its possible compliea- tions and the natural unsettlement usual to a national political campaign in this country, are some of the substantial grounds for the hesitation and stagnation which enshroud the securities market.