The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-06-03
WALL STREET IS
MORE SENSITIVE
RhinosceroS Hides Are No
Longer Fashionable
SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE
Big Fellows on the Street Have Now
Become as Sensitive to UnfrlendIy
Criticism as Sore
Bois.
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

NtN OIht June 4s-NOpbNldAjs-- VI
the most noteworthy developments of the
hour IS the changed attitude of the rich
and powerful personages and interests in
Wall street toward the public. 1t Is no
longer fash ionable to wear rhinoceros
hides and assume Indifference to attack
and criticism. Public be id senti-
ments are reserved for star chamber ex-
preston. The big fellows have become
sensitive to unfriendly notice as sore
boils. The unrest of the public mind has
become a recognized fact, even among
the naughty and exclusive members of
the upper clawses. who had contracted
the chronic habit of regarding all popu-
lar demonstrations as vulgar agitations
Designed chiefly to annoy them, but as
being otherwise unimportant.
All this is changed. Graft revela-
tons have followed fast, and followed
faster during the past two years until
! the popular awakening has assumed a
complexion most menaclng to interests
hitherto regarded as impregnably en-
| trenched.
Insurance revelations long since gave
way to serial sensations of astounding
! graft in other directions until il would
! seem almost as though the whole bust
ness world literally reeks with immoral
! ity and rottenness. Much OF the talk
that is heard is gross eXaggeration and
susceptible to explanation, but evidence
is found ON every hand that the popular
feeling has been worked up to a pitch
which makes 1t impossible TO saney dis
crlminate. Washington, the political
nerve center of the nation, is even more
| deeply stirred than Wall street. Every
! congressman and ofhceholder aims to
keep In touch with sentiment in his par
! ticular locality, and from Washington
comes word that popular unrest has swol-
len to tidal wave proportions. Politicians,
from United States senators down to
road supervisors. are bowling to the storm.
They have been trained to distinguish
the difference between utilization and a
ground swell, and they are in agreement
as to the size of the movement now In
evidence Washington news is making
Wall street sit up and take notice.
That Wall street has Its ear to the
ground is shown in the very recent past
by:
The creation of Standard Oil publicity
bureau.
Consolidated Gas company's abandon
ment of its programme to nullify by court
injuncture the soc gas law nilly Willy,
and then to proceed calmly with the col
! lection OF DlllS uHueT inc Olu 81 idlcs
The cutting in half of the telephone
charges in New York city.
The beef trusts lightning change OF
| front on meat inspection.
President Cassatt's rush home from
Europe.
| Railroad willingness to accept any rate
bill Congress may frame.
1.-THE whole is greater than any of its
parts
Sugar Trust VIII Profit.
Sugar will probably be benefited as
much by the free alcohol bill as the whis-
ky trust Standard Oil money, by the
way, practically controls sugar" AL
cohol is one of the bi-products of sugar
refining, although it has not been exploit
ed as such The sugar trust has not
specialized that portion of its business
on account of the high tax on spirits
imposed by the government. Under the
new order of things. it is a certainty that
the big sugar company will enter extern
sively upon the production of alcohol
will be stimulated in many directions and
the poor whisky trust which has borne
the expense of long and arduous cam
paigns against Congress for legislation
of the right sort will have to divide the
benefits with whoever may care to enter
the field in competition. 1t will not be
necessary, however, to waste sympathy
on the whisky trust for the insiders have
made a barrel of money in the stock mar
ket on the strength of what Congress
would do. Shrewd advertisements of the
benefits that would accrue to the trust
after the passage of the free alcohol
! bill has been the backbone of the bull
movement in whisky stock and the price
was marked up from % to &c. Insiders
have cleared 100000 to $20'000000 on the
| stock above 90, a largo part of 1t going
out at go or higher. Some Of them were
so impressed with their own arguments
| that they bought back. The smarter ones
were satisfied to let the public make
4 whatever it could above 50 or thereabouts
| although still retaining an interest, so as
| to be in a position to take advantage or
whatever developments might take place
later on. AS matters now stand the public
has the big end Of the stock capitalization
| and the whisk trust insiders have the
money.
Baer Is Character Study.
| George f. Baer, said to be scheduled for
| the presidency of the Pennsylvania, when
Mr. Cassatt fades into private life, pre-
sents a curious character study. He has
been described "abnormally self-center-
| ed" Nine out of ten men who have made
| have had that failing. 1t was the over
shadowing characteristics of Caesar, OF
Mahomet, of Charlemagne, of Petep the
Great of Cromwell, of Napolean. of Fred
ericA the Great, of Joan of Arc, of Column
bus, of Stanley. of Livingston, of Andrew
Jackson, of Theodore Roosevelt, and
scores of others who are enrolled on the
scroll of the Great The humblest and
most self-abnegating of all Jews proclaim
ed that "only through me shall we enter
the Kingdom of Heaven" George F. Baer
believes in himself Right or wrong, he
knows he is right and is answering in
| the faith. Having taken a stand he goes
| the limit in It's support He may be out
voted and obliged to execute the will of a
| hostile majority, but that does not shake
| his opinions In the slightest. Fear Of per-
sonal consequences does not move him.
| Quality of that kind typifes the highest
| degree OF courage. 1t is the kind that
nerved martyrs to unfiinchingly endure
torture. heroes to look with unblanched
faces into the cannon's flaming mouth
The Baer type of courage is different
from the pure gambler nerve" possessed
by successful plungers and spectators
Tbfo 10 nv TO or ~.