The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-20
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER Events Follow With Startling
 Rapidity PASSING OF HEINZE PARTY 1t Is Now Believed That the Most of the Liquidation Movement In
 Wall Street Has
 Passed.
PASSING OF HEINZE PARTY
BY W. G, NICHOLAS.

 the past month or more came to pass. Not the least important of these happen | ings is the elimination of the Heinze party from the Metropolitan banking arena The Heinzes forced themselves into the New York banking and stock exchange field about six or eight months ago, and their invasion was unwelcome. Conservative bankers and stock eN- change interests looked askance at the Montana crowd from the outset As an overlord of a mining camp, F. Augustus Heinze, leader of the invaders, was all right As resourceful and partially sue cessful foe of Standard oil in a spectac- ular fight for valuable mining property in Butte, he had made name, fame ana fortune As a Wall street Napoleon ne has fallen fiat. The Heinze SKY focket which flashed dazzingly athwart the skies few months ago has dropped to the ground.
 It is altogether probable that Fritz Heinze will be factor in the copper slt- uaton for a good while, but as nhaneler he may properly be classed as dead one The financial passing of the Helnze party in Wall street is directly the result of over-speculation in the stock market
  As long as times were booming his kind of a play was all right, but in a season of contraction and widespread tendencies toward conservatism he found himself overburdened with enterprises and obliged to come to a standstill.
 There are many people in Wall street who openly rejoice at his discontinue, yet after all, Heinze is no worse than many men who are reviling him and who Al al h. ods. One of the chief troubles with EIeinze is that he was too raw, too much given to "coarse work, and sometimes too forgetful of the niceties of business life Heinze Is a young man, however, and if he sticks to his speciality, mining, he will continue to be heard from.
 The street has known for weeks back that important interests and individuals were in straits and that extensive liqui- dation would be necessary before the sit uation could be cured. This liquidation has been going on steadily, and there are
 indications that the worst of 1t is over.
 The developments have marked the 2un- shment of oyer-extenSion ill many quar- ters. Those who have been most conspic- uous in the metal industries have suffered worse. The individuals and combinations and pools which have been subjected to harshest treatment have been identified with the copper compa nies smelters, and United States Steel.
 The-people interested in these several lines of mining, smelting, and manufac- turing spread themselves out over the whole field and went into subscriptions and projects beyond their depth. It was largely a matter of personal acquaintance among these people. They have been thrown much together during the last four or five years, and the good things were passed along endless chains of indorse- ment and commendation.f Thus very extensive and widespread community of interests were established which took in thousands of men in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Cleveland, and other industrial and financial centers.
 The whole structure has been sagging for months, and the community of inves- tors and speculators have been obliged from time to time to sacrifice their mar ketable securities to get money with which to take care of their other things for which nQ sales could be found. The weak ones have been dropping off as their hold slipped, and the struggle finally de- vowed on the stronger interests and com binations who had been fighting for their lives, and whose painful efforts were known to inside Wall street. There are still some rotten spots and there may be other failures, but, as before stated. the best information is that the worst is over. If this be true, then the stock mar ket should be dragging on the bottom and the next movement should be in the way of improvement and recovery.
 The ordeal has been severe one, and there has been a wholesale and general squeezing out of wind and water. Stocks may not have yet touched their lowest levels, but a great majority of them are at least 50 per cent cheaper than they were a year ago. To that extent the hundreds of thousands of investors In se- curities have paid the debt of imprudence and i'll fortune That debt will not have to be paid again. There is solid comfort in this thought to those who have been able to endure the strain down to date.
 To surface appearance money market conditions show slight improvement. In the background they are getting slowly better. Corporations and individuals of the larger caliber have been and are pur- suing policy of retrenchment and econ omy. They have been saving wood and paying off their debts as fast as possible, and will continue in this straight and rigid line until they extricate themselves from the slavery of extended commit ments and obligations. No new construc- ton or enlargement of business will be entered upon for good while.
 Only work that was started and cannot be stopped without any loss will be gone on with. This condition is not as yet seriously reflected in industrial quarters for the reason that, generally speaking, mills and factories everywhere are going under good headway on old contracts Those who imagine that the industrial &C., tivity is going to keep up indefinitely be- cause evil prophecy in that direction has not yet been made good have only to in- oure confidentially at the headquarters of all the large manufacturing and min ing corporations to undeceive themselves It must be said fin this connection, how ever, that the policy of retrenchment and debt paying which is being relentlessly pursued by the important interests will effect the cure and produce a healthy monetary situation. Not only is this the case. but health will be restored much sooner than most people deem possible.
 The country is enormously rich and more people are solvent and in possession of surpluses than ever before The pro- cess of recuperation is, therefore, likely to be completed before the public appre- ciates the fact. An accelerating feature to recovery is the continual infusion of new gold in the currency of the world at the rate of more than $1.0O0009 a day Of this amount the United States will have for it's share more than s1oo00000O year. to which must be added the coincidental increase in bank note circulation The silver lining to the financial storm cloud is already appearing, although not visible to the untrained eye.