The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-10
STRENUOUS WEEK
FOR WALL STREET
Atmosphere Clearer Than for
Long Time
THE ANTI-HARRIM SPASM
Rogers Has Shown Good Judgment BY
His Attitude Toward Amalaamsted.
The Present Status of the
Mining Stocks.
THE ANTI-HARRIMAN SPASM
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.


Wall street since the week in last Au-
gust when the explosion OF the news of
the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific
dividends set the market afire On
Wednesday afternoon when the newsboys
were rushing into the street crying, Elk
ira, big panic in Wall street" the fnan-
cial barometer had changed suddenly
that there was almost a bear panic on the
exchange, the upbulding of Reading by
frightened shorts $40 share in a few
minutes reversing the whole trend of the
market We have had enormous liquda-
ton and the atmosphere is clearer than
IL has been in a long time. Some heavy
! losses have been taken by powerful inter-
eses. The SPECTATOR who began a bear
campaign with the announcement of the
Hartman Pacific dividends In August
last, on the theory that the big news in
the market was out, has not had much to
worry about since Some or the August
prices were: Atchison los, Baltimore and
| Ohio 122 Brooklyn Rapid Transit 81, st.
| Paul 1893, Delaware and Hudson 226, Great
| Northern 1884, Illinois Central 178, Louis
| vile and Nashville 154, Missouri Pacific
100. New York Central 146, Northern Pa
cifc 49, Pennsylvania lac, southern Rail-
way 49, Union Pacific 1871. The loud walls
last August came not from American in
vestors in Union Pacific. but from the
| London option dealers The manner in
which a few of the wise ones ate up the
| London option dealers last August was
only repetition of six years ago, when
| some of the wise ones loaded up with
calls on Union Pacific at plain $57, and
Whereabouts, and saw the stock rise in the
next six months to s13O, The English have
always been bad losers.
| The Standard Oh crowd has never gone
| out of Its way to help out the English
| spectators One reason for this is that
the Standard Oil crowd commands enough
| capital in this country without depend
ing in any way on the English. Mr. Nor
| gan has pursued a different policy. He
keeps his English friends In pretty close
touch with the speculative news from the
corner. Mr.. Morgan and Mr.. Hill depend
on London to large extent for financial
backing In times of stress. Mr. Hills
backing there Is probably larger than
that of any American fnancier. London
often gets advance news about the Nor
gan plans In our market, and the Morgan
crowd seems to go out of its way to help
make money for the English spectators.
Mr.. Morgan sold an enormous amount of
steel securities in England with the ex-
pectation that he was going to make
money for his English friends. The set
back In the steel industry that brought
on a slump In the shares severely hurt
the Morgan credit on the other side. Mr..
Morgans efforts even since then have
been devoted to reconstructing his credit
in England.
Enulish Learn Lesson.
The slump in the steel shares did not
hurt Mr.. Morgan abroad as much as the
international mercantile marine fasco.
The English investors lost millions OF
dollars in the steel shares. They did not
lose much money in the shipping trust;
in fact, they acquired some good Ameri-
can dollars. The thing that amazed the
Englishmen in this affair, and that
weakened their confidence in the Morgan
name, was the eXtravagant prices that
Mr. Morgan seemed willing to pay for
the English ships. They concluded that
if Mr.. Morgan was as careless in capital
izng the shipping trust as that he must
| have been a little careless In merging
the steel plants into the steel trust
A piece of gossip floats In from London
which throws a sidelight on some of the
recent developments in our stock market.
According to this story one of the leading
1 and most influential directors in the Bank
of England, Lord Revelstoke, formed an
alliance a few months ago with members
of the STANDARD Oil party in New York.
including representatives of recognized
Standard Oil banks. 1t was a contract
in writing. 1t was one of those gentle
| mems agreements" In course of time
Lord Revelstoke discovered that his
American associates We're betraying faith
and unloading stuff on him. He was
slow in reprisal. but when it came 1t was
| in, ba cbon of advance hank
| of England rate to per cent. which
was the beginning of the tremendous
liquidation in this market by Standard
Oil interests. One incident of the subse-
ouent record was the emergency borrow
ing of s10,0Oo0oO byq II. H. Rogers at
| an extravagant rate of interest.
Like Anti-Morgan Spasm.
| This anti-Harriman spasm is very much
like the anti-Morgan spasm of four years
ago The same things that are now be-
ing said about Mr.. Hartman were said
! about Mr. Morgan in the collapse in the
steel shares. The choice names that are
being applied to Mr.. Harriman-as thief,
swindler, robper, etc.--wcre all heared on
| Mr. Morgan four years ago. And the
| same people who are low crying from the
| houstetops what rotten country this
| is" were doing the same thing four
years ago. Mr.. Morgan survived the at
| every man in this country who has done
| big things in big way has been sub
| iected at some time or another to this
sort of attack. A great many thousands
| of investors all over the country put
| their money in the steel shares because
| they believed in Mr.. Morgan. AS re-
| suit of the slump In the shares many
| millions of dollars were lost by investors,
although those who were able to hold on
| are not much out of pocket 1t Is the
| other way with Mr.. Hartman. the
| grumblers who found fault because peo-
pie lost money in following Mr.. Morgan
are now finding fault because of the
profits that are being made by the thous-
ands OF people who have been following
| Mr. Hartman.
| When Kuhn, Loeb & Co. We're selling
the Union Pacific holdings of the Hill
| stocks day after day at the high prices of
last year it is said that they made
report every night to Mr.. Hartman of
the days business. The Pine street bank
ers. it is said, threw up their hands in
amazement day after day at the manner
in which the followers of Mr.. Hill con-
sumed the stocks they poured into the
market Day after day they exclaimed
among themselves: "Will they take any
more?" Millions upon millions of dol
lars of Great Northern were poured into
the market and the Hill crowd took them
without a whimper. 1t is said that the
Hi people among themselves were
ta1,