The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-06
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER. Short Selling of Stocks is
 0verdone TRICK OF THE GENERALS William Rockefeller Denies the Rumor That St. Paul Is In the Market to Borrow Funds-Has Plenty
 In Sight.
TRICK OF THE GENERALS S
BY W. G. NICHOLAS.

6r w. 1. NlCHOLAS.
 New York, October 5.-tspecial.)-- a narrow market, where conditions are bearish, the tendency is to overdo the short selling in many apparently vulner- able stocks and put the market into posi- tion where it can be easily manipulated at the expense of the bears. Several in- stances of this have zen witnessed dur ing the last week, It has been the de- light of the market generals to take speeialties one at a time and lift them violently and without warning, thereby Frightening the shorts into covering at a loss. The generals, wise men that they are, do not attempt to hold prices on the high levels because by doing so they would invite the selling of real stocks. It is an easy matter to run up any par ticular stock which happens to be over sold, but it is not so easy to find a market for the goods at top quotations.
 Canadian Pacific was one of the things that was jumped the first of the. week at the expense of the shorts. St. Paul came next. Drives were also made at the shorts in Amalgamated, Shelters Union Pacific, Brooklyn Rapid Transit and other specialties which had been unduly fla vored by the bears. In none of these Was f6dl DuSlDS power Qt- yeloped The banking interests look gloweringly any attempts to organize general bull movement. Meantime, however, absorption of securities is going on in a small way by small people and those of the middle class who have actual money to invest and find themselves un- able to withstand the temptation of put ting it into stocks that yield an income of to 12 per cent on current quotations. This absorption is of sufficient volume in the aggregate to lick up considerable percentage of liquidated stocks coming on the malKet, thereby keeping the float ing supply down to within manageable limits.
 One of the incidents of the week was an interview by William Rockefeller on St. Paul. In refuting a rumor that St. Paul intending to borrow $l2000,0o MT. Rockefeller explained that the road was not only not in the market for funds, but that it had money in the treas ury or due on instalments of stock sub seriptions sufficient in amount to pay for the extension of the road to the Pacific coast and leave balance of $2O,O00000 or more.
 While reassuring stockholders that they would receive the usual per cent for awhile, MT. Rockefeller was at pains to say that he did not care to go- on record as predicting : per cent in perpetulty. Analysts of railroad accounts say that when the new issue of stock, which is as yet only partly paid for, and does not appear in the reports, gets on the books the per cent will go gilmmering- in other words that the earnings of the system will no longer justify the rate on the enlarged capitalization. As a safe per cent stock St. Paul may be cheap at 12o. As a ) or per cent stock it may be high priced at that quotation in com petition with such stocks Baltimore and Ohio, Illinois Central, Atchison and Louisville and Nashville. Furthermore, after the St. Paul is finished to the Pa cific a great many millions of dollars additional money will be required to equip and perfect the road so it can compete on even terms with it's rivals on the north and south. The street cynics never fail of course to call attention to the suspicion that whenever Mir. Rocke- feller MT. Rogers, MT. Morgan or any other of the authorities of high finance feel moved to bolster up the market in any particular it Is because they have something to sell and are looking for GUS toners.
 One of the sinister things overhang- ing the ma rket is a deep aeated belief that several ambitious and over ex- tended interests will have to liquidate before the situation can permanently improve. There has been imprudent expansion in more than one copepr combination, in at least one steamship combination and terrific sealing down in the fortune of some of the men who got suddely into the multi-mil- lionaire class by reason of accidental participation in the big industrial boom of the last eight or nine years. Some of these interests and individuals in- vested their money and their eXpecta- tions in banking and insurance, as well as in spectacular mining enterprises.
 The street. while not openly ques- tioning their solvency, is nevertheless pointing to the enormous shrinkage that has been going on in the securi- ties they have been manufacturing or control and wondering-well just won dering. Where a few weeks ago gossip about these people was transmitted in whispers and anonymously names are now being freely mentioned, greatly to the disturbance of confidence. It Is the fashion to denounce all this kind of talk as incendiary and criminal, but actual happenings of an unfortunate kind are almost invariably eralded by jus. such sort of rumor and inuendo. Where there Is so much smoke there is very often fire.
 The J. J. Hill interview was another incident of moment. The street Is fair ly well used to MT. Hills jeremiads and Is not influenced much by them as might be supposed. On this occa- sion the bearish effect of the talk was modified by the reminder that while he Is now bearish on his own securi- ties and looking pityingly on those who buy his Great Northern and North ern Pacific at current prices he was trying to get everybody into them a year ago or thereabouts when Great Northern was selling about 325 and Northern Pacific around 200. It does not speak well for a mans judgment 10 bear stocks 100 to 206 points below the level at which he was a rampant hull. MT. HilPs bullishness on his own specialities cost his friends in London, Canada and the northwest more than $500 100000. On the Fist of this month Mr. Hartman will appear again before the interstate commerce commission and reply to those inouiries that he refused to meet last spring-inquiries which if answered truth fully and without evasion will reveal the inside facts about those stock deals which resulted ultimately in the Union Pacific becoming possessed of more than 100000 shares of stock in other railroad systems and in him individually amassing a vast fortune, believed to be more than $1oo,- o0e.Oo.
 Mir. Hartman has been openly accused