The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-31

will come something in the nature of d | surprise MT. Prick was MT. Morgan | first choice for the presidency of the Steel l Trust when the combination was formed | almost three years ago. The selection at | that time was entirely satisfactory 10 the
 Standard oil party and practically every | other important interest except MT. Car negie. The little iron master insisted
 upon having MT. Schwab at the head of
 the corporation and MT. Morgan was
 obliged to yield. Now that Mir Prick has | taken virtual control the move is spoken | of in many quarters as a Rockefeller vic-
 tory over Morgan. Nothing could have
 given the latter greater satisfaction than | the placing of MT. Prick in charge. lln- ouestionably 1t would have been better | for the property and for the stock | holders if this could have been doae at | tbe outset instead If after nearly three years of confusion, one year Of Which might be described as period of semi- | demoralization.
 Wall Street is becoming more or less
 reconciled to the apparent certainty of | MT Roosevelt's nomination for the pres idencv. Word comes from Washington to 1 almost every man in the financial dis
 trict having connections at the capital
 
 nomination and that the financial element | might just as well be set at rest on that | issue. The feeling is growing, therefore | that 1t will be Roosevelt against whom 1 soever the Democrats may select. The recent utterances of MT. Bryan demand | ing a reaffrmation of the Kansas City | platform in it's entirety has chilled the disposition of great numbers of indepen- | dent democrats in New York who were l getting ready to vote. the democratic l ticket on the theory that a conservative candidate would be named upon plat form to which they could give support The number of voters who are in. this
 class is very large, more than enough to constitute the balance of power in the empire state. These people are again in doubt and uncertainty as to what they will do. Down to the date of MT. Bryan's re- entry into the arena great majority Of this independent element looked with in- difference or disfavor upon MT. Roosevelt, entertaining the theory that he might not be the safest man for the place. As be- tween him, however, and a democratic candidate committed to disturbing the ories the likelihood is that they will de- clare against change when it comes to a ballot box issue.
 Col Gates was not the only man who
 
 brought back word from Washington that decision In the Northern Securities case need not be looked for until along about the first of April. The supreme court takes time to consider cases of this inn porportance and a selection of the jus tice to write the decision was not made until a few days ago. It is the custom of the supreme court to give justice all the time he wants to prepare a decision and then to thresh is over at a series of conferences. Time is also given for the preparation of minority opinions where an irreconclable conflict of views arises, as not infrequently happens. The de- cison in this case may not be handed down until May.
 The story is again rife in Wall Street that the Standard oil people are soon to take practical control of the New York Central. This rumor gets in circulation periodically, sometimes with d decided flavor of veracity. but each time 1t dies out. It is extremely probable that the Standard Oil interests have much lar ger investment in New York Central than the vanderbits and what Is known as the strictly Vanderbilt following, but that is not all there is to the Vanderbilt miniStratfon or management. People Who talk so gIibly of turning out the Wander bilts and substituting some other interest run against the unpleasant fact when they come to look into the case that Van derbilts while in a decided minority in the stock of the railroad proper, holds as a family investment many Of the underlying properties which constitute the system. These 'hods" include substan- tially everything at the eastern end or the line south of Yonkers, taking In the tracks between that city and the Grand Central Station at Forty-second street The family also owns various links along the road from Yonkers to Buffalo and have valuable holdings between Buffalo and Chicago. including among other things the immensely profitable Union Stock Yards These possessions give to the vanderbilts an underheId on the New York Central system and it's immediate connections. The Vanderblts may, and probably will in time, retire from active railroad management, but it is hardly in the cards that they will either be kicked or thrown out, although notoriously be