Bisbee daily review., 1907-06-09

I nlar because they were convenient to handle and easy to sell and the banks took them as fast as they were of Tered until they could not take any more. Thus the credit of the corpor- atlons was expanded to the very limit and finally the end was reached. The capacity of the country to absorb stocks and bonds and short-time rotes was exhausted. The investing public had bought ali they could carry.
 Simultaneous with this crisis came the Presidents recommendation for federal control of corporations and the action of Congress. Mir. Bryan advocated government ownership; oth- CTS demanded official regulation of rates and all kinds of propositions were advanced conoerning the restric- lons of corporate power and the re- auction of charges The state legis- latures butted in and fifteen of them passed laws arbitrarily reducing pas senger rates to cents mile without scientific inquiry and without consid- ering the consequences upon the man. lagement of the roads or the stock holders. It was a political move, an epidemic of anti-corporation fanati- cism, combination of sucialistic agi- tation, personal revenge on the part of politicians whose railway passes were cut off, and the efforts of demagogues to demonstrate their solicitude for the welfare of the people.
 All this tended to excite distrust and apprehension on the part of in- Vestors, retired business men, widows trustees of estates and charitable in- stftutions, guardians of orphans and those who are responsible for the funds of others. Then came the dis closures about Harriman's Alton trans actions, which were known to every body in Wall street and had been pub lfshed as current news in the finan- cial columns of every prominent paper in the country at the time they oc- cured. But the public has a short memory and people read their news papers in hurry. Unless they are di- rectly interested in a subject they do not connect the events and disclos- ares of one day with those of another CT recognize the significance of the news. The Investigations of the inter- state commerce commission did not disclose a solitary fact that was not known and had not been in the news papers before, but the sensational treatment of tine testimony and its ac- cumulated weight frightened investors and convinced the public generally that the great corporations were not being managed in the interests of the stockholders. Consequently the latter immediately began to unload Sheir holdings on the market and there was no one to buy them. The banks and other large investors were gorged and the natural operations of the same Dld law of supply and demand resulted n a depreciation of prices. If people are determined to sell they will not haggle over prices. and their eager Iess to unload on the best terms they could get caused the slump.
 '.It was panic Of the first order. A hird of the quoted price rf the se-
 urities listed on the stock exchange vas wiped out in a few days. There vas never such q stupendous shrink lge- There was an apparent reduc- cion of more than S2.OOO, 900 in the nominal value of the stocks and bonds in which the fortunes of millions of
 
 more remarkable than anything, there was not q single failure. The banks and investors are so rich that they were able to stand it. but if Secretary Cortelyou had not come to the rescue | by releasing government funds the l stock exchange would have closed and 1 business would have been suspended. ] But the actual loss in insignificant. | 7kx, aF AL just as rich today as they were before | the panic, The dividends on their in- vestments will continue just the same. | The earning power of the properties | has not been diminished The wheels | are going around as fast as ever and 1 there is no reason to fear that the | of this country is likely to be impaired.
 ''The only people who actually suf- fered in the panic were spectators who held stocks on margins. They.l lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but there is very little sympathy for them.
 "The question now puzzling the mind of every man in Wall street" said the philosopher in conclusion, is whether prices are going back 10 high-tide quotations. They have al- ready recovered considerably and are quite high, as they should be. Further more, the demand Is limited; the con iidence of the investor in the manage ment of railroads has been shaken, and before he buys any more stocks ne would like to know what Congress and the state legislatures are going b do in the future