The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-02

belief that a republican president and national House of Representatives will be elected in November, thus ensuring q real 'lady-lke" revision of the tariff
 next winter and spring. They do not permit themselves to have the slightest doubt as to the election result or to subsequent proceedings.
 They have schooled themselves to hear with indifference the railings and ragings of the campaign orators of the opposition
 and who will solemnly demand that the
 duties be removed entirely from articles manufactured by the great corporations. At the head of this list stands in a class by itself the United States Steel Corpo- ration, which enjoys the beneht Of 40 per cent protection against foreign com- petition. It has not thus far entered into the calculations of the bulls on steel stock that any human agency can scale down this protection, or that anytnlng
 political can interfere with the opera tions or profits Of the giant coihpiha tion.
 l. For this and other reasons there eXists D the strongest kind of a bull feeling on the steel issues, and the buying which continues to be good even at an ad- vance of nearly 100 per cent (not lo0
 points, from the tow quotations made last winter. There is an earnest ana | as influential buying of steel common at | A as there was at 23.
 The quarterly report of the Steel cor | poration, made public this week, bears | every evidence of having been rather | highly colored and the figures somewhat | forced. yet on the whole the showing may be regarded as favorable. The management is excusable for sealing | down appropriations for various purposes and for reducing amounts charged against depreciati tion, etc. It was over generous l in these respects last year and the year before, and it's treasury is fat with un- | expended amounts appearing in these ac 1 counts. It can draw on its fat without l taxing its strength appreciably.
 The Dutch are great believers in Unlteo l States Steel. There is one Holland ac- | count which carries nearly one-tenth oi | the entire common share capital-nearly | 5O0,000 shares. This immense holding is | on behalf of a syndicate which IS carry
 ing altogether nearly 100000 American | industrials against which it has issued
 debentures, bearing lower rate of in
 terest than is yielded by the stock. The | syndicate Is made up of group or very | rich men, and while soundly grounded, | has withal a speculative feature. as lati- l tude for profit is given in enlarged earn | ings of the basic companies.
 The sharp upward movement in Erie ii- l frustrated the complete control the Harri- l man party has over the stock market. | Since MT Hartman blocked the Morgan l move to put Erie through reorganiza- l tion a few months ago Erie common ad- | vanced from 13 to above 25. The last 5 | points of the recovery have been charac-
 terjzed by great activity, and at times the
 old cripple has actually taken leadership.
 For a road which escaped bankruptcy by
 the skin of it's teeth to be thus jumped to
 the front and given conspicuous posi-
 tion among the active issues speaks won
 ders for the Hartman mastery over the
 Wall street situation. The move in Erie
 has been attended by all sorts of rumors, ! having in common the one hope and ex-