The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-25
=NeW Fall Stock

heavy purchases of our grain, cotton, pro visions and other products. Our credit position abroad has not been better at this season in many years ana the renet which this will occasion in our interna- tional money relations will be seen in very marked way later on. It will go Tar to counteract local stringencies, and with tho treasury accumulations which will Ina released from time the outlook may be ascribed as very much more encourae- ing than has been anticipated. Many coi- servative fnancers and students or the money situation are still unwilling to ao- init that there is any possibility or easy conditions during the fall and winter months. but they say that the prospects are improving and that there Is reas- onable hope that the stringency Will not he unduly severe. Now that the DOT rowers are fully awake to the ract that thev must curtail their demands there should be gradual relaxation all around instead of harsh contraction. It IS as tonishIng how fast this country catches ,,n when 1t makes up its mind to exer- oise patience and wait for accumuiateo money supplies to catch up with the de- mand.
 There Is a popular idea that the stock market losses fall on specuiators anu gamblers and that the decline in prieeS Is A matter which should not partlculariy Interest the multitudes Never was there & more fallacious notion. A drop or slo'- 0o0.00o,00o in the selling price or securl- ties in a single year spells sunerins ana ruin to tens and hundreds or thousands of innocent people who are not In the re- motest degree either spectators or gam blers in stocks. That there should be ig- norance on this point seems almost in- credible in this age of intelligence ana general information, but such seems to be the case The stocks and bonds Of cor porations after they pass into what IS called investment hands are not all locked up in safety vaults or put away in tin boxes Far from it. They are widely used as collateral on loans and ma al- most universal employment in the busi- ness of the nation
 The holder of 100 shares of dividend pay ing roalroad stocks or s1o,00o in bonds may want to buy a home for say $30Oo or s50O0 or $S00o. He make loan for the amount at his bank and deposits his bonds or certificates of stock as security. He may use the proceeds of the loan Tor partial payment in his real estate transac- tion. A decline in the stock market which cuts down the selling price of his securi- ties one-third rone-half leaves him help less and compels him to submit to the sacrifice sale of his collateral to protect the bank. He is virtually in the same po- sition as though he had bought his stock on a margin and had lost out. Others use securities as a basis for their working capital, getting accommodations at tho hank for money with which to carry on their business. the dividends more than ofrsetting the interest on loans. The mar ket slump wipes out their securities and forces complications with the banks, lead ing to a strain of credit in every direc- tion There are thousand and one ways in which loss may be entailed by legiti- mate owners of securities who would be wounded to the heart if they weree ac- cused of being either gamblers or specu- lators Hundreds of thousands of such people are to be found in the country to- day who have suffered actual loss. Those who own their securities outright and re- ly on them solely for dividends do not feel the shrinkage so long as there is no re- duction in returns. This Is the fortunate smaller element in tho investment world. They only dimly realize fluctuations IT the stock market and take but passing interest in the hysteria and emotions which rage in the street from time to
 time.
 Tn the management of railroad and in dustrial companies there Is probably 99 per cent honest and 1 per cent dishonest and incompetent There is more ado over the fractional mismanagement than over the aIl-prevailing integrity Honesty and vir- tue being the rule of our social and bus mess organization. The newspapers ant magaz zines must look elsewhere for ma-
 terial for yellow publication. The law
 abiding business and the law abiding household goes along inreflnitely without
 notoriety, whereas the rascal and the outlaw continually find space under the
 headlines There is food for comfort ant real contentment in the thought that we are as a people not as bad as we are painted, and that even such a weighty person as our President may be unduly influenced and think Ill of his fellow cit