Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-03

Deeh cnange IN this respect lately. lie
Presidents ifnreenting campaign for the
regulation of commercial enterprises by the
government. which has resulted in harsh
foreign criticisms of American business af-
1airs, Is arousng the metropolitan news
papers one by one to the gravity OF the
situation.
Some of the most conservative men In the
financial district, men who have at times
pc, peen friendly ADVISORS OF Mr.. Roosevelt at
ms request, believe that he Is carrying his
campaign or government Interference with
the affairs of business too far These men,
however. recognize that some OF the recent
revelations in high finance, like those made
In the insurance investigation, have been
OF a nature to give Mr.. Roosevelts cam
paign against corporations great popular
backing. These men have been with the
President in his efforts to promote publicity
In the management of public companies
They believe in publicity. But since Mr..
Roosevelt has taken an aggressive stand
on the position that the federal govern
ment can step In and decide what profits
a great business corporation may be al
lowed to earn these conservative friends OF
Mr. Roosevelt believe that he has gone too
far. The writer of this correspondence has
no intention of holding a brief for Wall
street or finding fault with the Presi-
dent But it seems that the public gener-
ally ought to know just how conservative
men in Wall street talk in their inner Of
ices concerning the Presidents campaign.
The heavy liquidation in stocks. while II
has been due to various causes, as pointed
week. has been aggravated, without doubt.
by the almost continuous stream of
dispatches that has been pouring out Of
Washington concerning the administrator
attitude toward corporations
That the recent decline I'm stocks has been
helped along by the Standard Oil crowd,
always dominant force in the stock mar
ket, Is undoubtedly true. There is no love
lost between the Standard Oil crowd and
the administration. There is actually per-
sonal antagonism. The Standard OIL crowd
hn hob 4f 1ztst 40
on occasions when 1t is especially displeased
at the administration. This was the case
two years ago in December. when the Presi-
dent came out flat-footed for the govern
ment regulation of railroad rates. The
Standard Oil crowd took the pegs out of the
market and we nearly had panic. No one
believed that the feelings of the capitalists
at 20 Broadway were as badly hurt as the
panicky selling of stocks seemed to indi-
cate. But while they were giving an OBJ
tect lesson they wanted to give good
one. This winters renewal OF the admin
istratlon's attacks on Standard Oil inter-
ests has again called for a stock market
object lesson from 20 Broadway. 1t Is
doubtful, however, whether these object
lessons so carefully prepared by the Stand
ard Oil crowd are as effective as they
think. Those who have talked with Mr..
Roosevelt know he doesn't worry much
whether stocks go up or down. One OF his
close friends told some Wall street men at
a conference one time that there was no
ticker at the White House. This. of course.
was gratutous information. The Wall
street men did not care whether there was
a ticker in the White House and they had
never suspected that there was one any
way.
That public confidence in securities has
been shaken there can be no question.
Various causes have contributed to this. In
some quarters of Wall street II is all laid to
the President This is manifestly wrong.
Wall street is very largely to blame. Dur
ing the past five or six years the public has
Ia deal Of the things that
on behind the scenes In Wall street and
some of these things have not been of
nature to rebound to the credit of Wall
street. The trouble has been, however. that
seamy side of Wall street that II forgets
about the other side. INSCRIPTIONS men
with personal grievances have taken advan-
tage of the state of the public mind as a re-
suit of these exposures and have left no
stone unturned to make things In Wall
street look as badly as possible. The re-
suit is, as has been repeatedly pointed out
in this correspondence, that the public In
terest In securities Is not commensurate
with the present prosperity of the country.
Railroads and Industrial corporations have
difficulty in raising new capital to meet their
real needs and great plans for extensions
and improvements must be held In abey-
ance. Standard railroad stocks have suffer-
ed very severe declines, and some Of them
ditions would be considered bargains. Some
of the seasoned railroad stocks, considering
their earnings and dividends. are selling
now nearly as low as they did in the bear
market in 1903 But the public did not como
in then to buy stocks when they were de-
clining, and when they were on the bot
tom, and it is not likely that the public will
come in and buy stocks now. The public al
ways buys stocks at the top and sells them
at the bottom. This is why 80 out of 100
men that come into Wall street to speculate
In stocks fail to make money.
The Hill following is thinking very bull
ishly on the Great Northern ore certificates.
Some of Mr. Hills friends went so far in
November as to sell out some of their
Great Northern and replace Ii with ore GER
tificates. The operation has put them in
fairly comfortable position. considering the
of the ore certificates. The followers Of
Mr. Hill are not talking very much now
about the value of the ore certificates. but 1t
is noticed that every time the general mar
ket weakens, and these certificates come
out, the Hill people have orders in to buy.
They think they ought to sell around 100
now, and that they are going to sell at 15O
and 200 and $50 and 300 before the Steel
Corporation stops shoveling up the ore on
the Great Northern lands. Some ore ex-
perts up in the northwest, who are not I'M
der the influence of the genius of the north
west, say that the amount Of ore in these
lands has been greatly overestimated. In
stead Of 800 600 or TOO, 1000 tons Of
ore they say there Is only about SOC. 00O. 900
tons. But this uninspired testimony does
not worry the Hill people. They look back
at the past and recall the fact that when
ever they have followed the "old MANS
advice they have won out. and they are GO