The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-29
THE BULL|SHNESS
 IS ARTIFICIAL Backing and Filling is Not Without Significance WAS TO CHECK DECLINE Wall Street Is Looking for Advanced Ageressiveness on the Part of
 President Roosevelt
 Against Trusts.
BY ". G. NICHOLSON.

ing and filling of the stock market lat terly has not been without significance. It has developed the fact that the bull ishness which was such a feature for awhile was to a large extent of arti- ticial creation. It was the natural se- quence to a concerted effort a short time before to check a decline that threatened to become dangerous On the recovery from inside prices an im- pression gained ground that an era of permanent improvement had set in. This theory, while well supported by many of the conditions, was rather pre- mature. Unquestionably general con ditions are better than they were sixty days or six months ago. but the out look is still far from rosy.
 There is the money situation. Talk as you will and try to bolster up cour- age as you may the fact still stares us in the face that there is at the present time not enough money to go around-not enough capital to finance business already under contract or be- ing carried on. There may be occa- sionally some relaxation in interest rates, but as fast as funds accumulate Iney are dDSOrDed ana Il lOllB WdlllllS list remains to be provided for. There is going to be demand for every dollar that Is likely to come in sight during the next six or eight months, and borrowers will not haggle over the rate they are charged. There will be no money to loan for new enterprises and the infiexible order is in force to curtail loans, shorten sail and in every way to discourage expansion or ex- tension.
 The activity which Is noticed in so many of the industrials is to a con- siderable extent deceptive. Only in special instances as the contraction in manufacturing has gone to the extent of wholesale discharge of men. There has been 10000 to 12,000 men dropped a Butte, Montana, other thousands Tn the copper mines of Arizona and Mex leo; and in the more or less allied industries like General Electric, West inghouse, Allis-Chalmers there has been a notable reduction in operating forces, running well up into the thous- ands Railroads are economlZ1ng py short ening their pay rolls where pos sfble but not much can be done m that quarter until the crop moving season is over, which will not be for four or five months yet The cutting anu sla shing of pay rolls in the Iron and steel mills will not begin for some time. possibly not until January or February of next year. It thus ap- pears that in the industrial held there will be work right up to the point oi sharp depression. It will be like Wad- ing in the shoal water for long uls- tance from shore without setlihs above your knees and then at the next stan n,I,neinr in over your head. There will be no transition stage. The in- dieations are that the change from steady work at high pressure to idle- ness will be sudden for great many tn ousands of working men ana "oil on and when the real start to the pau beeins successive steps from bad to worse will be quick and emphatic' This forecast may be mistaken, yet ie is what a great many close students ae coalitions are saving and believing.
 u'here has been an awakening on lhe mart of those who had fondly imagined that the President had decided 10 let up in his campaign against wicked trusts anu rich malefactors. The belief is no" hxed in the minds of almost everyoooy III Wall street as elsewhere that Tn ms forthcoming speeches and in his message to Congress MT. Roosevelt Will taKe ground in advance of any yet occupied bv him in these matters Those who are close to him and who are In touch "ith his views. give no hope of change III his programme or of a relaxation in his purpose to make 1t unpleasant TOT law breakers of high degree
 The members of the Standard oil group are in A blue funck. They are badiy scared lot. That s29,0O0,0oo fine was an eve opener and 1t has aroused In them A feeling of fear which never before found Judgement there. This enormous fine followed as 1t has been by a per
 ,ato a.l aar mn gation into trust affairs by MT. Kellogg, inc Presidents representative in the de- naytment of justice. still further ln- spires the group with alarm Not III twenty years have they ever been brought in actual contact with the raw edge or the law as fearlessly adminlstereh. It might be said that never in their ca raars have they encountered just such a situation as that which now confronts them :,
 For the first time they know what 1t means to have public opinion and na- tional and state administrations unitedf ly at their threats, pulling, hauling, tear ing and striking. The experience IS en- tirely new to many of the younger az greeation and wholly unpleasant to the veterans as well as to those more re- gently in charge. All Of this power full group may be sail to be bearlsh on the market situation. They are most emphatically not buyers of stocks and It can hardly be expected of them that they will give the market support as long as they fell themselves being made the cen ter of attack from every quarter.
 vigorous attempt is being made to produce the belief that the Standard Oil people have been in realty big winners by the decline in stocks during the last eight months, and that the entire mar ket situation is to their liking. Every body knows that this Is not the case and that with the possible exception of John D. Rockefeller the entire Standard Oili party has been severely punished. In some cases the losses have been stupend- ous In no cases have any of the lead CTS been crippled, but some of them have been trimmed down half two thirds, and 1t hurts the Standard oil rnagnate just as much as any other mag nate to be man handled after this fash ion. People do not break down from nervous prostrat1on while marching for ward to buoyant success, or while con- ducting triumphant campaigns in the stock market.
 Charles F. Flint estimates the shrink age in the market price of American se- curities to have been 6. 900 and in cidental to this statement there appears a series of calculations and comparisons more or less interesting. For instance, it is shown that this amount is five times the indemnity paid by France to Ger many to partially pay the cost of the war waged against the French in 1sn-H; that