The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-17
BANKS STRONGER
 THAN EVER BEFORE There Are Still a Few Weak Points In Stock Market IRREGULARITY IS DISPLAYED Time To Buy Stocks Will Soon Come, But Small Investors Are the Ones To Be Afraid of In the Transactions.
BY THOMAS c. sHorwELL.

New York, November 16-(Special. )-In
 spite of further loss in surplus re-
 serves shown by the weekly statement
 of the banks, the position of those in-
 stitutions is very much stronger than it was year ago. The banks have
 shifted several million dollars into their secret reserves and are in reality, per- haps $50, 900 better off than the clear ing house report shows them to be. The general public has quit hoarding money, but some of the leading banks are still fragrant offenders
 Business men who have balances with the banks and who have been refused cash for pay roll purposes have been
 able to purchase the currency from their
 own banksNb by going to dealers in cur-
 rency and paying a premium. The pub liz is not scared half so badly as the
 banks are and with the flood of gold coming from Europe it is believed that
 the banks will recover from their fright
 and restore the hoarded money to cir- culation in a few days.
 Part of this money is being held by the banks to be used in the payment of bonds about to be issued by the gov- ernment. There are about $50, 600, 900 of these bonds and as the government in tends to leave the money with the banks making the payments, the bonds will be used for additional circulation and 1t will mean an increase of $10oOO0,O00 in actual currency.
 There are several weak spots in the market. One of them is in connection with group of financiers identified with the Atchison railway. Another has to dq with prominent stock. St. Paul is also a storm center, and New York Gen. tral will bear watching.
 One weak feature of the situation is that the general public has been urged to buy stocks. The transfer books of the great railroad companies and trusts show tremendous increase in the num- Der of stockholders iq the last year. This is due largely to tlie fact that prom inent financiers have transferred big blocks of stocks into the names of nu- merous clerks in order to conceal liqui- dation. But there has been considerable public buying the last month. This Is unfortunate because it puts many thou- sands of shares of stocks into hands that will throw them on the market in a crisis. In the opinion of careful observ- CTS the time will come within few weeks when it will be advisable to begin buying stocks. But the great buying power of the savings bank depositors Is tied up, because if the banks release money to their depositors to let them take advantage of the low prices it means that the banks themselves will be com pelled to sacrifice investments to make good the money withdrawn by depositors A highly irregular market must be ex- peeted for the next few weeks, at least until after Congress has been Tn session a few days Cotton and corn are both pointing downward and it begins to look a. though wheat must also decline. In the mining market the gold shares are the only ones that show any vitality. The total number of shares of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange today amounted to 266,S4S, against TAI, ,004 the same day last year. The total par value of bonds sold today was $l, ,00O against S919,000 the same day last year. Stock market bears who are counting on the big increase in operating expenses of the railroads to help them carry on a campaign away into next year are liable to be disappointed The drastic reduction of working forces reported from day to day by the big railroad system will bring down the item of operating expenses very sharply. The operating expenses have been largely matter of book keeping and included in them are the costs of many improvements. Just as soon as the railroad insiders get ready to turn the tide net earnings will fn- crease at a surprising rate. It must be remembered that with all the reduction