The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-02


 ! Illinois Central .. O.. .. .. .... 51
 Louisville and Nashville .... 5.5 | New York Central .............. 5.5
 Northern Pacific .. .. :. .. .. 5.7
 Pennsylvania .. . ... ...... 59
 Southern Pacific .. -. .. .... 6.6
 Union Pacific .. -. ..... 10 7.5
 The same enthusiasts who were bulls on Union Pacific at $195 are now bears
 on New York Central around $110. They l are just as enthusiastic bears as they
 were bulls. They are predicting 80 for
 Central and limiting at all sorts of un- pleasant developments. Around the New l York Central offices in Forty-second l street there certainly is feeling of un-
 certainty as to the future The New York Central has gone on a good many years l unmolested, and 1t Is a matter of com | mon knowledge that good many things | have been done behind closed doors that
 would not read very we'll in cold print The diplomatic Senator Depew, when he l was actively engaged in steering the Cen
 tral snrewdly managed to keep on friend
 ly terms with the representatives of the
 people, and the company went ahead do- ings things on the old Vanderbilt theory,
 the public be damned But times have
 changed. The people now take a childish
 delight in digging around in dark closets l to discover mysterious things, and the l
 with fear and trembling In the old day the Central was immune from attack but
 no one knows what may happen these days.
 The real trouble with New York Central
 Is the same thing that holds Pennsylvania | down in the market. The company has
 been spending money faster than it has 1 been building up It's business. Many mill
 lions of dollars have been spent in the past three years for the purpose of pro- viding for the new business that will come | In the course of the next ten years. The Cassatt administration of the Pennsylva- | mia spent many millions of dollars that could not be expected to bring any return | for several years. Both the Pennsylvania 1 and New York Central have been expend- ing enormous sums of money on their New l York terminals. The Centrals principal | capital needs lately have been In connec- | tion with the identification of the New 1 York terminal. This money Is all being spent for good purpose, and there can be no question that when this work Is l completed and suburban traffic Is built up, there will be generous return on the capital invested Meanwhile the hold | CTS of New York Central stock must be | patient
 The talk Is, of course that the New York Central dividend will be cut to per cent. This wouldn't be surprising | u @ time when the road was making very heavy capital expenditures, and at | time when the country was entering upon one of It's periodical reform spasms It | was a mistake to increase the Pennsyl- vania dividend. MT. Cassatt told the Pennsylvania's principal bankers when the l dividend was raised that nothing could | happen to force the company to go back | to the old rate.
 Southern Pacific preferred has at last been dislodged from It's seemingly im- | pregnable position. For nearly three | years 1t has held like a rock, and has | been entirely removed from speculation. Before the announcement of the issue of $32. 100000 more of this stock a few days ago its extreme range since 1t was first | brought out In 1904 was only 10 points, and a part of this narrow variation was due to the $31a semi-annual dividend The stock had a normal level at $115, the price at which it may be redeemed by the com pany, and until this month 1t never sold more. than 8 below this price. But the an- | nouncement of the issue of another big block of the stock has weakened It's mal- ket position. and yesterday 1t made | new low record. When this stock was brought out 1t was figured out by the mar ket sharps that 1t never could sell much below $115, because of its 2 per cent div- dend, and that there was always a pos | sibility that 1t might sell up to $150 or s16O if the company did not exercise it's option to redeem 1t at $115 But in these days per cent stocks are not worth as much as 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 sys- tenn that has been developed to make do ffafu whose business ventures are influenced by the harvest. Every railway system in the wheat and corn belts has It's own re- ports from correspondents and experts James J. Hill of the Great Northern, for example. knows just how much wheat he will have to haul from every station on his lines in Minnesota and the Da. kotas, weeks in advance of the govern ment reports. The Hill lines receive many 1 millions of dollars a year from the trans | portation of wheat and corn, and this revenue varies with the volume of the | crops. One of the big Chicago banks, | which has correspondents all through the grain country. publishes a detailed esti- mate of the wheat crop. and other banks have private reports. Large industrial companies, like the Standard Oil com pany and the International Harvester company, have elaborate systems for private estimates. So do the great eleva- tor people ike the Armours ana the large grain brokerage houses. Grain experts are employed 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 campaign 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 glome the accumulation of property is encouraged and the visible evidences of thrift treated with respect In this United States where individual liberty Is exploited as the ve-v founda- ton of our institutions the remarkable spectacle is seen of government assault on property, and on rich citizens just because they are rich. Individual com petence 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 constitut- ed legislatures of federal. state and local. It is rhe exception when, men who have