New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-25
THE FINANCIAL MARKETS.
n WEEK OF DECLINING PRICES WITH THE FUT-
URE UNCERTAIN.
Prean Opinion That Period Of Moderate Contraction of Business
Is at Hand-The Note Issues of the Weel.
THE WEEK IN WALL STREET.

seem TO be for further reaction oeIoIo amy --'
provenent of consequence Is seen, although
the situation is not sufficiently cesF 10
make prediction safe That the business OF
the country has reached its limit Of ex-
pansion for the present and that cohtrao'io"
is beginning appear to be the fact The oaIK
cIearings one of the sure indices OF the activity
Of trade, are diminishing in volume. Great rail-
ways are announcing it to be their policy to re-
strict for the coming year their expenditures to
the limit of actual necessity. owing to the high
cost of material and labor and the difncuity OF
obtaining funds at moderate rates; and are rais-
ing money on short term notes at high interest
the condition Of the money market making II
impossible for them to put out stocks or oonds at
ANYTHING like satisfactory figures. observers
like James J. Hill are placing themselves on rec
ord as forecasting business reaction although
not in the immediate future and the shadow Oh
the Presidential election campaign Is ALREADY
being projected across the yet unplotted chart
Of the stock market movement for the coming
year. From the interior come no advices Of slack
ening of business or Of impairment Of confidence
the chief factor in the continuance Of business
prosperity, but it should be noted that the stock
dulness or activity in general business as rulo
many months in advance of the visible begin
ming of such periods. The inability Of the rail-
ways to handle with adequate promptness the
traffic offered them is acting IN a way as an
automatic check on the enlargement Of the
production Of the commodities constituting that
traffic. as does also the state of the money
market strained to the uttermost of its resources
TO provide capital for carrying on the gigan-
tic volume Of general trade and industry and,
therefore unable TO spare the further great sums
required for enabling the railways to increase
in the necessary degree their facilities for cop
ing with the food of business pressed upon them
But TO believe that there is to be a letting up
in the present thunderous pace Of business Is
not to argue that hard times" are impending.
Whether or not 1907 is 10 be added TO the long
series of years in which successfully remarka-
BILE crops have been harvested in this country
1t is still too early to say, of course: but the
& abundance of the snowfall this winter. although
entaiIing much hardship and actual suffering
upon the people Of the great wheat and corn
producing states of the West and Northwest. is
an augury of satisfactory crops later in the
year; and even If failures or semi-faiures should
occur IN certain districts the total area devoted
TO grain production is now so enormous that
the aggregate of the grain harvested would
probably constitute average years yield.
Another insurance against the occurrence of
real business depression is the fact that the
country now has the gold standard, and has no
longer to reckon with the unsettlement to pub
lie confidence involved in an agitation for I'M
sound money. The position taken by the ma
tional administration. too, toward corporations
IS now recognized in no sense one of an
tagonism to those combinations Of capital. but
5a+a ,Jpot N md dizcri
nations and compel obedience to the law as
strict as is required from the individual And
the working out of that policy is visibly making
for good and is going far toward insuring the
stability of confidence and preventing the APP
proach Of that infection of apprehension which.
as 1t becomes more and more widespread, causes
a bstention from the rsking of capital IN new
enterprises, drastic curtailment Of production.
with its incident of the restriction Of buying
power through the discharge Of laborers or the
cutting down OF their wages, and finally bust
ness paralysis
The extensive wheat export movement now
under way and the heavy buying by Europe OF
American securities and railway notes are do
ing much TO strengthen the position Of the
United States in the international money mar
ket, a volume of credit being established so
large as to make it probable that gold can be
desirable to import it. The condition Of the
New York money market is not at the present
moment reassurng and the spring demand from
the interior Is near at hand. The reserve OF the
Associated Banks is only about S4,3O0,O00 in
excess of the legal requirement, or considerably
less than at this time in preceding years; and
the almost weekly offerings Of railway notes
may by and by If continued, enguIf this slender
surplus.
The S60,0OO0O0 note issue Of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company last week brought dismay to
the stock market, feeling which was tempered
later by the assurance that no more financing
would be done in the current year by that road
and that the company's $50,000,000 of notes ma
turing November l would be provided for out
Of the proceeds of the new issue. AS the com
pany will need at least s2O,OOO,o00 this year for
the prosecution Of its construction work in prog
ress in this city, 1t is assumed that the rest of
the sum required-for only about s10,OO0.O0O will
be available for the purpose after setting aside
the amount necessary for retiring the notes ma
turing I'm November-wilI be obtained from the
payment of part of the money due the company
on its sale to Kuhn, Loeb & Co several months
ago of many thousands of shares of Baltimore &
Ohio, Norfolk & Western and Chesapeake &
Ohio stock. An interesting incident of the week
was the sale by the Tidewater Construction
Company, which is building the Tidewater Rail-
road H. H. Rogerss property. Of s1O,OO0,OO0 OF
its notes For the accommodation, it is under
stood, the company obliged to pay more
than per cent. In the financing of the Tide
water enterprise securities have heretofore
been offered 10 the public, and from the making
OF Ih:s large note issue and the high rate TO the
borrower the inference has been drawn in some
quarters that the Standard Oil groups commit
ments in the stock market are extremely heavy
and that upon these powerful capitalists the
brunt of the loss through further decline in
stocks would fall. Stocks are in many cases