The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-07
PRESIDENT HEARS SOME PLAIN TALK Wall Street Disturbed By the
 Recent Outbreak BIG BEARISH FACTORS Are Lack of Money and Lack of Con. fdence-Atchison Dividend In-
 crease Not Considered
 Good Business.
, BEARISH FACTORS
BY w. G. NICHOLAS,

l w. Ss NfGTIOL-AOs
 New York. April 6.-(Special.)-T
 financial community was just beginning to
 feel easier this week when it was dis
 turbed by the renewed outbreak of hos | tilities between MT. Roosevelt and Mr.
 Hartman. The spectacle of the president
 of the United States and the representa- | tive of large vested interests calling each
 other liars and other names in the public
 prints is not of character to reassure
 investors as to the future stability of the
 financial situation The feeling in Wall | street is that the government inquiry into
 enterprises backed by the Standard Oil
 crowd has resolved itself into a personal
 duel between MT. Roosevelt and Mir. liar l riman. The rank and file of Wall street l have no great love for either of these eminent Americans, and the feeling here | is that no good can come from this per l sonal fight.
 | More light is thrown on the so-called l Lawson panic of December, 1904, by the correspondence between MT. Roosevelt and | MT. Hartman given out at the white 1 house. The Lawson panic was in real
 ity panic caused by the Standard oil crowd taking the pegs out of the market | on the day the first Roosevelt message came out. That was the message that | stated the Roosevelt position in favor of | the government regulation of railroad rates. The Standard oil crowd, whether | really frightened or not, made show
 in the market of being frightened by the | message. Now we find that only 8 few 1 days before the pulling out of the pegs, | MT. Hartman was writing to the presi- | dent, asking him what he was going to l say In the message about railroad rates. MT. Roosevelt wouldn't tell him. At that | fha wa c seeking MT. Harriman's advice. The split | between the two men eame about then. 1 MT. Hartman threw up his hands when 1 the president came out in his message in l favor of government regulation of the l railroads The railroad presidents con- | ference at the Metropolitan Club and the l Lawson panic quickly followed the pub Mcation of the message.
 The president has been obliged to listen | to some rather plain talk during the last 1 two or three weeks More than one white
 house visitor has told him frankly that | the political agitation directed against l some of the larger interests has worked injury to the country at large. They give | Mir. Roosevelt credit for honesty of in- l tentions, but advise him plainly that his | efforts have been either misdirected or | arc being misconstrued. They point to | the fact that the political campaigning I l foreign capital not to lend American cor | porations any more money.
 l It has been pointed out to him that a 1 large part of tho railroad mileage has
 | been built with foreign capital and that even to this day the financial management
 l of transportation systems are obliged to | go to London and foreign capitals for, | funds whenever they plan important m- l provements, extensions or betterments. | The political attitude of the national and | state governments toward the railroads | is unquestionablw. chilling the old world | confidence in the safety of American in- vestments. This is unavoidable under the | circumstances and the consequences are | injurious. This much can be said with out reservation or qualification, and the | responsibility therefor Is traceable direct | ly to injudeious agitation. Doubtless the
 harm can be rectifled, but it will take time | to bring about restoration of entire faith
 in the asset value of our professions of | good intentions
 | The Wall street friends of the adminis- | tration have made a big clean up in the | stock market. When stocks began to de. | cline in the middle of the winter a very l rich New York financier called on the president at the white house and there learned that it was Mr. Roosevelts in- tention to investigate Mir Hartman. This
 man nosed about Washington a bit and discovered that a campaign was under way in administration circles to show up MT. Hartman. This financier came back to New York and began selling out his speculative lines of stocks. He sold 5000 shares of Union Pacific among other
 things He told some of his intimate friends the investigation of MT. Hartman was likely to cause panic in stocks and he wanted to get out from under. That seemed rather wild talk at that time. This
 man bought in his Union Pacific on the panic prices of March A. He is only one of a number of rich men, not very friendly to MT. Hartman and the crowd at 26 Broadway, who learned of the atti- tude of the president, and got out of the market last winter
 The two big bearish factors in the mar ket are lack of money and lack of conh- dence. Those financial students who form their opinions entirely from statistical data think that lack of money Is the chief bearish factor; those who look more on the human side of the game hold that lack of confidence Is the more important The lack of money is really only tenn porary factor and 1t will right Itself au- tomatically in time. That confidence is not so badly shattered as some of us have imagined Is evidenced by the stream of orders from small investors all over the country for odd lots of stock. One authority estimates that within the past fortnight from 5,0o0,000 to $50, GOO has come into Wall street in the shape of odd lot orders. This Is certainly a very encouraging sign of the times. And tho foreigners. too. have not entirely given 1 up their faith in our future. One broker
 age house reports that 1t shipped 1000 shares of Canadian Pacific to London in | lots of from one to four shares. This in l vestment buying in odd lots does not | make bull market. but 1t lays the foun- | dation for one. Stock taken out of the | market in these small llots does not come | back on an advance of few points, Very | often it never comes back at all It is | put away in strong boxes and the higher | the market goes the more inclined are tho | holders of these small lots to hold on to | their investment.
 Still, $50, ,000, coo coming into Wall street 1 in odd lot orders is not great bulwark | against the sort of liquidation we have been having. Take. for example, the New | port society pool in Union Pacific If the | pool was swinging 250.000 shares of stock | the market value of that amount of stock
 today is more than s3O,00O,OOO. When Un-
 ion Pacific was selling close to $200 last | fall this amount of stock was worth near | ly $5O,OOO, 600, and this was only one pool | in the market. A score of speculators | might be named who carry in bull mar nfA