The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-21
GOES UP AND DOWN IN NARROW LIMITS Big Interests Want No More
 Bull Speculation STORY OF BIG RECENT DEAL Gossip Says Tennessee-Repuhlic Inter- ests Will Soon Be Ready to Form
 ally Commence Fusion
 of Companies.
BY ". G. NICHOLAS.

market moves fitfully up and down be- tween narrow limits. The big banking in- terests are trying to prevent any renewal of the bull speculation, and they are also ready to support the market against fur ther attacks by the bears. The banking attitude may be Judged from this state- ment from one of the biggest bankers in the street: "I should very much regret to see speculative bull movement at this time. The stock market needs a sustained period of quietness and rest The call money market .s easy, but there is no time money. If we were to have bull market now, call money rates would climb skyward. The call money market is artificial. It can become natural by the absence of bull speculation. I know of corporations of railroads and industrial concerns by the score, which need sums ranging all the way from $l,0O0,00O to $0O,- eJ0,OU0 apiece It would be very bad thing to invite these people to come into the market at this time for funds. IT they do, 1t will precipitate conditions which existed a few months ago. l be- lieve that stocks will not fluctuate be- yond d range of 10 points or so. think Union Pacific will range from 135 to 145,
 
 ly. Granted a continuance of this until perhaps next fall, we shall have laid the foundation for a bull market. If we do not have a rest until then, then sustained bull movement in stocks will be indefinitely postponed"
 Wall street, despite the daily reports of big business through the country, looks for an industrial setback, if only a small one. 1t Is fact that the strongest and most progressive combinations of capital and brains in the country have determined to put on the brakes They have sum marily and decisively stopped plans of ex- tension and development wherever they are not committed beyond retrieve. This concert of action on the part of lmpor- tant interests foreshadows let down In industrial and commercial activities, decrease in the volume of business and eventually general reduction of wages. The course of prices of stocks depeneds on whether or not this period of depres- sion has been discounted by the decline which has already taken place.
 The public holds aloof. Investors who didn't buy stocks in the first big break in the middle of March made a solemn resolution that if ever again in the his- tory of the country prices got so low they would mortgage their families and put all their money into railroad stocks. Then few days later there was another big break in the market and prices went lower. Investors were frightened again. and after the bargain table had been cleared off they made an even more sol emn resolution that nothing would swerve them from their purpose to buy good stocks if they ever sold down again. The public may have third chance. But 1t will be the same old story. The gem eral public is always frightened to put ffS i,afn ut1 nlyc xxyaa hnty the bargain table. It never has the cour- age to plunge until prices are up in the air.
 Meanwhile the street Is full of rumors of the dissolution and retirement of a number of banking and brokerage firms which have in the past cut 0 large figure in the stock market as well as in the financing of enterprises of magniture. In at least two cases the names of the houses referred to have been very freely dis cussed ever since last fall. The occasion of this unpleasant gossip and notoriety was their Identification with pools and syndicates of various kinds having in them the element of speculation. It is more than likely that one at least of these concerns will wind up it's affairs and quit business. The active partners are men of large wealth and well advanced in years. They have been in the thick of the Wall street fight for a long time and are tired of the strife and excitement of the game.
 ''rhe trouble with the market" says a leading operators who started in to bull stocks right after the worst was over in March, lis that there is no confidence. Sentiment Is bad. bought a lot of stocks at v<iat I still consider are bar gain prices. and I followed them up 10 to 20 points, Then, when trieds to in- terest others in them I saw it was no Co I m l cannot get very bearish on the mar ket, because I am not going to try to sell stocks into the ground. If they get down dirt cheap again l am going to make another try at 1t, but l am not going to attempt to restore public confi- dence. I'd rather see somebody else do that. My own personal opinion about the political situation as it affects securities is that next year, when the campaign gets started, Mir. Roosevelt will be re- garded as the really conservative force in American politics. This probably sounds strange now. but wait till the other fel- lows begin shouting"
 Money is temporarily cheap in the call market. but this cannot continue very long. The whole country has expanded it's credits. The national banks of the country on March 22, date about midway between the two panicky days in the SIOck nldTkeI, TepOTten lOdiiS ol IlOIt than 4,5O0, 600, GOO, an increase of $400, CO., over the corresponding date last year, and of s1,0OO. 100000 over the corresponding date three years ago. The size of this item in the countrys national bank state ment is indicated by comparing it with the loans in March. 1901, when we were in the midst of a great bull speculation in Wall street. The loans then were only &, 900, ,O00, ,000. The loans are two and one half times as large as they were at the beginning of our ten-year period of pros perity.
 Here's the true inside story of cer- tain unpleasant event: young man. well known in society and in the sports of gentlemen, had motor car. MT, As car was one of those beautiful French machines that suddenly increase in cost as they are taken eout of the hold of the steamer and landed on American soil. MT. A. had $s000 In the car. He got hunch one day that the stock market was sale, and the particular stock that he thought was a safe investment as a short sale was Erie. The stock was sell ing well up in the 40s. This was along in the winter. He sold his car for 5000 and took the money to a broker friend. Mir. B. in Wall street. With the 5000 as margin MT. B. sold for MT. A. 1900 shares of Erie. Fries downward course was slow but sure. As the stock declined.