The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-01

With the federal, state and local gov- ernments making trouble for corporations. investors naturally hesitate to tie them selves up in Investments in corporate property. The scare has contributed heavily to decline.
 Actual results do not Justify this fear or semi-panic. True there has been a heavy decline and tremendous losses, but in no case has there been actual con- fiscation of property, and no punishment of law-abiding citizens, The reforms in corporate management which have re- suited from the agitation and an awak- end sense of responsibility have condueed to honesty in administration. On this point there is listle doubt The real trouble Is not the actual physical harm done to property but the implied threat against owners of property and the agi- tatlon which has resulted in the stim- ulatlon of dangerous class hatred The fear on the part of investors is that the masses are being encouraged to fight property interests under the mistaken idea that capitaA Is in some way hostile to industry, and that there Is need on the part of the multitudes to protect themselves against tyranny and robbery. is not so much what has been done as what may be done which has dis- couraged investments and frightened peo- pie of means into reducing their hold ings of stocks and bonds and Into in- stilling into others the danger of invest ing their surplus -.i that kind of prop erty They feel that the tendency of the times Is too strongly for the fo- mentation of indiscriminate hostility to capital, and that until a check Is made fin the drift of things they might as well get safe and keep safe.
 Latterly the impression gains ground that the scare Is to some extent unwar- ranted-that 1t Is the result of demagogl- cal outbrusts and has no real force be- hind it. at least nothing more tangible than wind and passion. All this talk of driving the owners of swollen fortunes into jail and punishing them horribly has thus far amounted to nothing. The harm has fallen on innocent people of whom there are multltudes. backed up against the wall the real managers of great properties eyince a willingness and an increasing desire to protect their own and to stand on their rights as against any increasing assaults grounded on noth- ing more substantial than demagogic ap- peal,
 It Is becoming growingly more evident that the market is breaking loose from foolish things, and that people are set ting down to the conviction that the country Is really resting safely on a foundation of stability. The matter of earnings is again coming to the front as the essential factor in figuring on in- vestment. The appeal to reason is com- pared by solvent people to that which was invoked by Mark Hanna when he impressed the voters with the belief that our national safety depended on the over throw of xperimentation, and when the thing for people to do was to stand pat and refuse to encourage doubtful ex- periments. The apparent desire to di- Yorce politics from business as far as it can be done is having Q salutary effect on securities values. Unless there should occur failures of international houses of importance, or calamities which do not now appear to be imminent, prices of divi- dend paying stocks should work higher This may not be the matter of a day or a month, but the logic of the situation is for improvement The crop outlook is not as good as 1t might be but 1t Is be- coming more and more evident that we, are to get substantial report from the old world. This help added to that which will be given by Secretary Cortelyou, will go long ways toward 8 restoration of faith in the future. The mere knowl- edge that there Is to be backing for the business of the country and that bor- rowers are curtailing demands every where, are big factors for the good.
 For the most part the interests which are behind the leading industrials and railroads are willing to see the market drift along without important change either way. They are well satisfied to let well enough alone and await the time for recovery of credit and confidence In some quarters however, accumulation .s going on. This Is notably the case Tn Union Pacific, Reading, Southern Pacific New York Central. St. Paul, Northwes- tern, Louisville and Nashville, Pennsyl- vania, Atchison, and in the preferred stocks of such industrials Steel, Smelters.4 Sugar and National Biscuit Things seem to be shaping to make Union Pacific and Reading the leaders, although the wise people on the exchange are puzzled as to the real meaning of some of the movements now going on. Within the last week or ten days Stan dard oil interests have sold at least 100000 shares of Union Pacific, and have made no concealment of the fact The stock has gone into a pocket somewhere. A
 well grounded theory is entertained that for two months or more J. P. Morgan & Co. have been large buyers of Union Pa clnc, and that this house and its friends have already secured practical control of the road.
 Such a report Is in the highest degree sensational, and 1t seems to have fairly good backing During the acute period of the March panic a 100000 share block of union Pacific passed into the control of a syndicate centered in the First National bank, which Is a Morgan-Rock Island in- stitution. Since then large amounts of this stock has come on the market un- der the hammer, and 1t has clearly gone soinewhere. Short selling has been en- couraged at every stage, and it has al ways been easy to borrow the stock Tor deliveries. One of the best Inside tips ahoat Is that there is 20 to 90 points in purchases of Union Pacific under 130. This tip was heard quite while ago, and 125 was named as the bed rock The price afterwards went to 121 or thereabouts Accumulation went right along
 People of importance are getting back to town. Very few of the active leaders of finance are now absent from the city or out of reach of the long distance tele- phone Conferences are in continuous progress and affairs seem to be growing more encouraging all the time.