The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-13
valuation of a quarter of a billion of dol
anu . ~ Held by Market

| way finance. For instance the table
! docs not include Atehson. Two years ago
| the Standard Oil party bought $S00Oo,00O
| of Atehison common stock, presumably
| for the Union Pacific, and this stock Is
| still held by the individual members
| of the group. There has been turned into
| the Union Pacific treasury however, $l0,-
100000 of Atehison preferred and at some
future time, when the Union Pacific has
| more money to invest, the Atehison COM
mon may be turned into its treasury.
! Then, again, Mr.. Hartman has I'M
/ doubtedly made very large purchases OF
| Reading during the past few months,
| and, with his associates, he is going to be
a dominant figure In the anthracite coal
| fields. In cropping for Mr. Hartman
motives in securing control OF Baltimore
| and Ohio it vii lbe well not to overlook
| the fact that thar road in Mr.. Hartman
/ hands is a beautiful and effective weapon
| for use in his warfare with Mr.. Gould.
! Baltimore and Ohio is a hot competitor
! OF Mr.. Gould's Wabash system from Bal
4 timore through 10 Kansas city. 1t Is
] particularly strong rival in West Nir-
ginia. Ohio. Indiana and Illinois. MT.
| Gould runs against Mr.. Hartman at
every step he takes IN the construction
of his western extension and in building
up business in the east. Not only nave
the Goulds felt the Hartman power in
the actual operation of railroads, but also
IL /
to raise funds have been made as hard
, as possible by interests friendly to the
Hartman combination. II the interstate
commerce commission orders Mr.. Harri-
man to unload all the stocks recently put
into the Union Pacific treasury he Is in
position to give every holder of
share of Union Pacific a plum Of SIPS
share.
Has Become caIoused.
Wall street during the past two or
three years has become SO calloused TO
the disclosures of methods of high finance
that the interesting revelation In the IN
terstate commerce commission inVestf-
cation of how William Rockefeller car
ried 100000 shares of Southern Pacific for
the account of the Union Pacific, while
James r. keene was making trouble for
the Southern Pacific, has only stirred up
moderate comment. Mr.. Keene, assured
by his study of the Southern Pacific prop
erty that the company ought to make the
returns to its common share holders that
are now being made, tried. at a great
cost to himself and his followers, to force
dividend in 1903. In the light of what has
come outw thin the last few days, 1t
would appear that Mr.. Keene at no stage
of the game had a ghost of show to win
out. He was playing against marked
cards and the dealers were set against
him from start to finish The remarkable
have survived so many memorable bat
ties against the other fellows game. IL he
had been built on little different line
he would have had game of his own,
and by this time all the money in the
" orld.
The street has a rumor that Mr.. Keene
has taken charge of big pool in Anal
gamated Copper. Once before the boys at
26 Broadway went to Mr.. Keene to get
him to look after their stock in the mar
ket. and they have not forgotten the mas
| terly manner in which he handled the
stock at that time. Mr.. Rogers himselr
went to Mr. Keene and told him that he
| and his friends had 100000 shares OF
Amalgamated in excess of their immedl-
ate requirements. They wanted to sell the
! stock, and they didn't care to try to do
It themselves. Mr.. Keene, although under
TO obligations to Mr.. Rogers. consented
! to turn the trick. He actually succeeded
| in selling this block of 100000 shares CS22,-
COO 600 worth of stoclO on rising market
After the stock had been sold Mr.. heene
told Mr.. Rogers that If he had any more
Amalgamated he would sell 1t. Mr.. Keene
did not like the looks of the copper metal
market nor of the speculative situation
in copper stocks His judgment was right,
Not many months later Amalgamated
was selling $50 a share cheaper than Mr.
Keene had sold the stock for Mr.. Rog-
ers' pool.
Interest in Mining Market.
| The big public interest continues to be
| in the mining market. Mining stocks nave
| finally recovered from the effects OF the
Nipissing fiasco. and mining stocks mere
| and in Boston, the home of copper stocks,
are booming on the great strength of the
copper metal market. Mr.. Lawson Is
| beating the tom tom for his Trinity Cop
per stock and those who gather in the
market place to see his show do not
| overlook all the other attractions The
! big speculation in Lawson's Trinity which
| overshadows the whole Boston copper
per market is tribute not to the value
| of tho Trinity NINE but to the value OF
newspaper advertising. As the chier
maker of breakfast foods out In Battle
| Greek once remarked: "You can sell any
| thing by Advertising" He qualified this
| statement, however, by saying that while
advertising would sell anything once, no
amount of advertising would sell thins
| the second time unless 1t had merit. But
this does not apply to Trinity, Lawson
sold 1t once by advertising, and now ne
is selling II second time by advertising.
The property may or may not have merit,
but the merit of the property does not
play any large part in the Trinity cam
paign. Spectators are buying Trinity
with very little idea of the location OF
the property, the nature of its ore oodles'
or the company's plans for selling its
I
vertisements because they are interest
ing reading. The oBston operator could
command a high salary as an ADVERTISE
ment writer for breakfast foods or soaps.
He knows how to catch the public. The
public does not care whether the Trim
ity is a mine or not. 1t buys Trinity be-
cause 1t believes that Lawson will make
good for a while. Every man who puts
some spare change into Trinity stock
does so with the confidence that he can
get out before the other fellows. In Law
son succeeds in putting a market valua-
ton of $50, 900. 900 or $25,000,O00 on his Shas-
ia county property and succeeds in con-
| verting some of this market valuation
| into real money for himself, 1t will put
him back on his feet again.
| He tried to rebuild his broken fortune In
| the New York stock market, but failed
| Nearly everything he touched for months
| turned into loss II Lawson can make
IS. 100000 or $4,000 900 out of his follow
! ing in this Trinity campaign he will again
loom up as big figure in the market.
Those who put their money into these
new copper stocks with the expectation
| of early dividends are doomed to disap-
| pointment A copper mine Is not made In
"a day. Despite the fact that very high
| prices for the metal have ruled for
months the output of the American cop
| per mines last year showed only slight
| increase over the previous year, and the
! best trade authorities do not look for any
| considerable Increase In this years output.
1t takes from three TO five years to de-
| velop a new copper camp. The fact. how
/ that n conner prODerty requires