Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-02

Of this stock few days ago Its extreme
range since it was first brought out IN
1904 was only 10 points. and part of this
narrow variation was due to the $3.50 semi
annual dividend. The stock had a normal
level at Sis, the price at which 1t may
be redeemed by the company. and until
this month it never sold more than s. below
this price. But the announcement of the
issue of another big block of the stock has
weakened its market position and yester-
day 1t made new low record When
this stock was brought out it was figured
out by the market sharps that 1t never
could sell much below S115 because of its
per cent dividend, and that there was
always a possibility that it might sell up
to $50 or sl60 If the company did not eXer-
else it's option to redeem it at Sis. But in
these days per cent stocks are not worth
as much they were two or three years
ago.
Great uncertainty continues to exist as to
the crop outlook. The governments crop
reports, despite all the elaborate system
that has been developed to make them
trustworthy, do not satisfy men whose
business ventures are influenced by the
harvest. Every railway system in the
wheat and corn belts has its own reports
from correspondents and experts. James j.
Hill of the Great Northern, fer example,
knows just how much wheat he Will nave
to haul from every station on his lines in
Minnesota and the Dakotas weeks in ad-
vance of the government reports. The Hill
lines receive many millions of dollars
year from the transportation of wheat and
corn, and this revenue varies with the
volume of crops. One of the big Chicago
banks, which has correspondents all
through the grain country, publishes de
tailed estimate of the wheat crop, and
other banks have private reports. Large
industrial companies. like the Standard Oil
Company and the International Harvester
Company, have elaborate systems for pri
vate estimates. So do the great elevator
people like the ArmOurs and the large grain
brokerage houses. Grain experts are en-
ployed by these principals not only to
travel back and forth over the grain belt
of this country and Canada watching the
growth of wheat and corn. but also to
study and estimate the probable crops of
the other great exporting countries-Russia,
India, Australia and Argentina.
Here is the Wall street view OF the cam
paign against corporate interests: This is
the only country in the world where the
possession of wealth is crime, and where
enterprise is branded as evil. In every
other civilized country on the face Of the
globe the accumulation of property is
couraged and the visible evidences of thrift
treated with respect. In this United States,
where individual liberty Is exploited as the
very foundation of our institutions, the re-
markable spectacle is seen of governmental
assault on property and on rich citizens
just because they are rich. Individual
competence is barely tolerated. Great
wealth, resulting from unusual business
ability and the application of intelligent
effort in management, attracts the hostile
attention of political parties and the duly
constituted legislatures-federal state and
local. 1t is the exception when men who
have amassed large fortunes in business
are permitted to enjoy in peace the fruits
of substance. In some cases the campaign
ing against persons and capital assumes
almost the proportions of a mania. Unless
there is a change in public sentiment in
this regard the inevitable consequence will
be that people Of large means will get out
of the country. take their fortunes with
them and seek homes where they will be let
alone and be free from political persecution
all manner of confiscatory and harassing
supervision.