The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-26
STOCKS ARE SOLD
 ON THE ADVANCE Wall Street Gets Some of the
 Relief Desired
HE BANKING SITUATION
Has Worked Back To Normal--Per- manent Return of Good Times May Be Delayed Until
 After the Election.
BY w. c. NICHOLAS.

BY w. c. NICHOLAS.
 New York. January 25.-The banks, un-
 derwriters, syndicates and other inter-
 ests which got hung up with securities
 on the big slump, have been able to
 unload quite a bunch of their merchan-
 disc on the public during the rise in
 prices. which occurred the first 20 days
 in January. That was what the mar
 ket was put up for.
 The rise which was partly manipulated | and partly due to natural causes. was
 entirely acceptable to the Stock Ex change element and to the. money com
 binations of Wall street There is no
 way of arriving at an intelligent esti- 1 mate of the amount of stocks distributed
 on the advance, but the aggregate must ! have been Very considerable It was | enough at least to afford the badly
 harrassed Wall street interests substan- | tial relief. The general public has been
 the principal buyer and although there
 may be material reaction from the high
 prices made in January, there will prob- ably not be a dollar lost on purchases made for Investment account anywhere | down the line, except in cases where cor porations are hopelcssly mismanaged and
 in bad hands.
 Tie banking situation has worked back to normal as fast as the most optimistic
 had dared to hope. Reserves are now
 away above legal requirements clear l ing house certificates are about all re-
 tired and money has again got within
 reach of solvent borrowers at rates which attract. The industrial and trade stua- tion shows improvement in many quar- ters, and people are again beginning to 1 permit themselves to really believe what ffaYY r-ftN xrrIxr | the outlook.
 l There remains however, a very infiu- | ential element which will not believe 1 that there can be a permanent return of good times until the national political l situation clears Thsy take the position | that the panic having been largely caused by political agitation against property people of affairs will not re-engage in
 enterprises until they can be-. assured of rest and until it becomes apparent
 that we are not to undergo another four years of unrest and uncertainty.
 l This element is looking forward to
 the national conventions of the two great parties next summer, or until such a time as the tendencies are sufficiently
 well locatable to make them reasonably Z sure of what the future may hold in | store for them in presidential way. This | unpleasantly refractory element in the
 financial and banking world stubbornly
 insists that all doubt must be set at rest | as to whether the country is to have
 another term of antagonism to property, l either by direct or conferred presidential
 successorship before tinlid capital can l be expected to come out of its shell.
 Investment money and capital available for the development of the resources of the country must needs be encouraged,
 they say, before departing from lines of | least resistance and getting once more
 into rough and tumble activity With the l big stick and a multitude of cumulative
 little sticks attacking the title of cor porate securities all over the country. money will naturally remain diffident and
 keep out of danger, so the pessimlsts insist
 This view is held by great many l people in and out of Wall street who
 are more or Tess influential factors in the general business situation. They may take a narrow view of things, and prob ably do. but they are on hand with their | talk and with their influence to check the boomers and to contribute their full | share to whatever there may be of doubt. l They must therefore be considered. Wall
 street will give increasing attention to | presidential politics until the action of
 the rival conventions gives better line
 on November results than is now ob- l tainable.
 It is arguing that if MT. Roosevelt con
 
 l mates his man the democratic conven- | tion will perforce name @ conservative l in which event doubt as to the outcome l may last until November. The argu- l ment further embraces the proposition l that if conservatism is expressed in the
 nofnnation of Hughes or Fairbanks or 1 Cannon the democrats will name a rad | teal and the result will then be foregone. l In this latter midsummer contingency | they look for the good times to begin | in early autumn, and assume permanent l form. All of which is submitted for l what it is worth gossip which prevails nightly in Wall street at the present writing.
 1 Among those in this country who are l not broke or even severely bent may be l enumerated the farmers, the planters, the stock raisers, the cotton manufacturers 1 and the great mass of investors who own l their securities outright and who do not | bother much about the ups and downs of l quotations as long as they get their divi- l dends and interest. Farmers during the 1 12 months of the panic year of 1907 got very high prices for everything they
 raised including wheat, corn oats, hay, | cotton, live stock and everything else that 1 grows out of the ground or feeds there 1 on of market value. They have had d 1 long series of years of uninterrupted pros- l perity and are rich beyond calculation. l Manufacturers for the most part had 10
 months of record-malSing business and
 profit Railroads made phenomenal earn l ings and nearly every line of industry
 was going under full headway right up to 1 the edge of the panic. Labor had grown | almost arrogant by reason of long years l of uninterrupted high wages, growing 1 higher year by year The country as 1 whole and in most of it's details was in a I better condition to withstand period of | 1afn af ftn hn- | ginning of any panic in our history. There I never was so much money in circulation, l either in bulk or in capita, the last gov ernmental report from the federal treas ury showing the per capita circulation to l have reached nearly s36. or almost double what it was half generation ago It l wAl be seen that the situation is chock | full of the clements of recuperative en- ergy, and that there, is good and substan- tial ground for the hope that our hard times may be of short duration | Official statistics of the business of the