The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-02

question. As q result OF thee9 argument
pro and con. it lie now clear to everybody
that It Is not possible for the Congress oil the
United States to deny to the railways or any
other corporations in the country the right
to a review by the Federal courts Of legisla-
ton designed to limit their profits and that
might easily become conf1scatory in char
acter; 30 that the entire railway rate propo-
sition has become largely shorn OF its ter
rors. Mention was made in this column last
week Of proof that had been afforded that
the Democratic party in this State did not
propose to turn itself v to socialism; and
evidences of this determination were in the
course of last week, as all readers OF news
papers are aware, again decidedly strength
ened. Fears generally expressed in the
financial district az to the effect upon the
security market Of the State election this
fall have, therefore, become SO minimized
as to be no longer a market factor. So, too,
dismal authorizations as to the failure OF the
winter crop brought about by the open win
ter rave been dispelled by the heavy snow
fall of a fortnight ago, which provided the
growing grain with an ample amount OF
snow covering; and 80 far as there are indi-
cations as to the size OF the next winter
WHeal crop Lney dIo u u buuipOi yicIb'
With this removal. either In whole or In
part, OF various external obstacles in the
path Of an upward movement in prices
consideration recurs to the impulses in
herent In the market itself toward a higher
level. Our bankers and our people gener-
ally are not now, as wa the case in 1902,
involved in a completely Of unliquidated
syndicate operations and overborne by a
mass of "~undigested' securities. Financial
hands are united and are normally free
to act, and there ia scattered over the
country a vast sum Of money awaiting
Investment when 1t is made clear to those
who own it that the general situation is
sound Inc strong. The business OF the
country continues on an immense scale.
Railroad earnings are mounting each week
and each month to new high records and
profits are everywhere arging. Last
week came reports Of increases for Febru-
airy In the Chesapeake n Ohio's net earn
ings of $3.50 900, in the Canadian Pacific's OF
S9O3, 900, in the Fries Of S8O1 600, in the
combined Rock Island and San Francisco
systems of 81, 800 900 M in the Atchison's
of nearly 81 500, 900; while the Lake Shores
annual report attested even more mag
nifioent results OF mana cement than in pre-
vious years. There has been more or
less heard Of late about the dulness in
the iron and steel trade, and yet during
the last week such additional orders were
placed by the railroads with the steel COM
panies for the most important item of their
production, namely, steel rails, as to bring
the volume of these orders in the present
month alone up to 400, 900 tons and to in
dictate a total rail production for the year
of $500, 900 tons. 1t Is said that the Car
negie Steel Company alone lie now making
$50, 900 a day net profits on the steel rails
it turns out and that preliminary figures
of the net earnings Of the Steel Corporation
for the current quarter are that these will
be not far from $50, 900 900, or the largest
at any similar time in the corporations
history. The boom in the copper trade
continues undiminished, but the Use Of
the word boom" here is a mispomer, as
there is q steadiness and breadth in the
current consumption Of copper and an
utter absence Of all feverishness that dis
tinguishes it from all past periods Of ac-
tivity in the trade with which a parallel
might he drawn. Attention has been
notably directed in recent years to the large
use Of copper made necessary by the build
ing Of electric trolley lines, but it is now
manifest that the demands Of copper for
this purpose are as yet only incipient. The
great plans of the New York Central for the
complete eleotrihcation Of many Of its lines,
Of the Public Service Corporation in New
Jersey for a trolley freight service there
that will penetrate all quarters OF the State
and Of the construction work OF this sort
hat looms UP in the future In every quarter
Of the country show how tremendous the
consumption of copper from this cause
alone must be in years to come. There
remains only, indeed, one substantial adj
verse element in the financial situation at
this time, and that is the labor difficulties
in the coal fields; but while matters here
must still be a source of unsettlement for
some time yet, it is impossible to re-
gard them as sufficient to stop the upward
course Of the market A strike in the an
thracite district cannot be serious in a
business sense while supplies Of anthracite
in the hands of consumers and OF the coal
companies themselves are so large. The
root Of the trouble in the bituminous coal
district seems to be the great overproduo-
ton Of coal there in recent years, which
has made profits in the business small and
precarious, and does not apparently justify
the operators in conoeding the advances
in wages asked for by their men; although
1t seems to be true that the disadvanta ges
under which the operators are laboring
are less in some districts than in others.
1t is, of course, clear that the large number
OF coal mines in West Virginia worked by
~non-union labor will supply no small por-
ton of the demand for coal while the
trouble lasts. and it is also certain that
the decision of the miners unions not to
enforce a strike in individual districts where
the operators are willing to pay their
laborers under the wage scale of 1908 in
sures the continuance Of work in the great
Pittsburg section and other very important
parts of the soft GOAL mining territory.
Nor is it unlikely that at any time we may
hear that all matters in dispute here have
been submitted to arbitration.
MN IN n NJ n DII