Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-29
Financial News Letter
BY W. G. NICHOLAS.


| The backing and filling of the stock mar
ket latteriy has not been without sig
| nificance. 1t has developed the fact that
! the bullishness which was such a feature
Tor awhile was to a large extent of artificial
| creation. 1t was the natural sequence to a
| concerted effort short time before to check
| decline that threatened to become dan
| gerous On the recovery from inside prices
| an Impression gained ground that era of
| permanent improvement had set in. This
| theory, while well supported by many of
| the conditions. was rather premature. I'm
questionably general conditions are better
| than they were sixty days or six months
ago, but the outlook Is still far from rosy.
-
There Is the money situation. Talk as
you will and try to bolster up courage 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
| being carried on. There may be OCCASION
ally some relaxation in interest rates. but as
| 1ast as FUNDS accumulate they are absorbed
ana a long waiting list remains to be pro-
vided for There Is going to be a 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
| to loan for new enterprises and the inflex-
| Idle order Is In force to curtail loans shorten
sail and In every way to discourage expan-
| sion or extension
| The activity which is noticed in so MANY
| OF the industrialS Is to a considerable ex-
| tent deceptive. Only In special instances
has the contraction in manufacturing gone
| to the extent Of wholesale discharge Of men
! There has been 10000 to II 900 men dropped
| at Butte. Mont, other thousands in the
copper mines of Arizona and Mexico, and
IN the more or less allied industries like
! General Electric. WESTINGHOUSE AIlis- ChaI-
mers there has been notable reduction in
! operating forces, running we'll up into the
! thousands. Railroads are economizne by
! shortening their pay rolls where possible,
| but not muoh can be done in that quarter
| until the crop-moving season Is over which
! Will not be for four or five months yet. The
cutting and slashing of pay rolls in the iron
| and steel mills will not begin for some time.
| possibly not until January February of
| next year 1t thus appears that in the in
! dustrial field there will be work right up to
the point of sharp depression. 1t will be
IKE Wading in the shoal water for long
! distance from shore without getting above
| your knees and then at the next step plung-
| ing in over your head. There will he no
| trans tion stage. The indications are that
the change from steady work at high pres
sure to idleness will be sudden for a great
| many thousands of working men and wom-
| en- and when the real start to the bad be-
| gins successive steps from bad to worse
| may be mistaken, yet it is what a great
| many close students of conditions are say
| ing and believing.
| Ihere has been an awakening on the part
| OF those who had fondly imagined that the
| President had decided to let up In his cam
! palsn against wicked trusts and rich male
! factors. The belief is now fixed in the
| minds of almost everybody in Wall street
as elsewhere. that in his forthcoming
speeches and in his message to Congress
| Mr.. Roosevelt will take ground in advance
! OF any yet occupied by him in these matters
! Those who are close to him and who are
in touch with his views give no hope of
change In his program of a relaxation In
| his purpose to make it unpleasant for law
breakers of high degree. The members of
| the Stadard Oil group are In a blue funk
| They are badly scared lot. That S23 OOU 900
| fine was an eyeopener. and 1t has arouse>
In them feeling of fear which never before
| found Judgment there. This enormous fine
| followed as 1t has been by a personally con-
| Quoted campaign of investigation into trust
| affairs by Mr.. kellogg. the Presidents rep
| resentative in the Department of Justice,
| still further inspires the group with alarm
| Not in twenty years have they ever been
| brought in actual contact with the raw
| edge of the law as fearlessly administered.
| 1t might be said that never In their careers
| have they encountered Just such a situation
as that which now confronts them. For the
| first time they know what II means to have
| public opinion and national and state ad-
! ministrationS unitedly at their Threats, pull
: ing, hauling, tearing and striking. The ex-
| perience is entirely new to many of the
| younger aggregation and wholly unpleasant
| to the veterans well as to those more re-
| Gently in charge. All of this powerful group
! may be said to be beartsh on the market
| situation. They are most emphatcally not
| buyers of stocks. and 1T can hardly be ex-
| peCted of them that they will give the mar
ket a q long they feel Themselves
! being made the center Of attack from every
! quarter.
| a vigorous attempt is being made to pro-
! duce the belief that the Standard OIL people
/ have beSn in reality big winners by the de-
! cline in stocks during the last eight months
| and that the entire market situation Is to
their liking. Everybody knows that this Is
! not the case and that with the possible
| ception Of John d. Rockefeller the entire
| Standard Oh party has been severely pun
! iShed In some cases the loses have been
/ stUpendouS In no cases have any of the
! leaders been crippled. but some Of them
! have been trimmed down half or two-thirds.
/ and it hurts the Standard on nagnate just
! as much as any other Inasnate to be man
; handled after this fashion. People do not
! break down from nervous prostration while
marching forward to buoyant success or
while conducting triumphant campaigns in
| the stock market.
! Charles f. Flint estimates the shrinkage
| in the market price OF American securities
| to have been $J,0OD.OUO,OJ, and Incidental
| to this statement there appears a series of
! calculations and comparisons more or less
! interesting. For instance. 1t Is shown that
! this amount is five times the Indemnity
paid by France to Germany to partially
! pay the cost of the war waged against the
| French in 1S71-T2; that 1t is more than the
! total cost of the great civil war IN the
| United States, extending over a period of
| more than four years and involving the
| sacrifice of nearly million men; that it
| is more than twice the cost of the Russo
| Japanese war; that it is almost much
| as the people of the United States receive
| a year from all the farms between the
| two oceans, and that it is equivalent to
| the wages of 5,O03N0o at 81 coo year.
These figures are impressive and help to
! bring within reach of the common under
| standing the extent of the shrinkage in val
| ne which the people Of the United States
| have suffered in the matter of securities
! alone. Mr. Flint is at pains to say that he
! does not hold President Roosevelt RESPONSE
! Bile for the terrific depreciation. At the same
I time he dwells at length on the loss of
| confidence abroad in American securities.
| due To political agitation and to the SEEM
| ing hostility of the dominant party to cor