The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-10
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER It Is Said the Public" Is Still
 Out of the Market A NEW SET OF BUYERS oversubscrbing of Pennsylvania Bond Issue Encourages Other candi-
 dates for Money and Other
 Calls Will Be Made.
IA NEW SET OF BUYERS
BY ". G. NICHOLAS.

BY w. G. NICHOLAS.
 New York, May 9-so far as can be | learned there is as yet no public in the market. The buying for account of the outside world was done on the great slumps in March of last year and october i and November following. During these periods of low prices the public bought and took out of the street millions of shares of stock proof of which is found in ] the large increase in the number of share holders of most corporations. whose se- 1 ourities are traded in on the stock ex- changes of New York and other cities Some of the stocks taken out of the market then have been resold, but not 1 many, excepting the speculative lines taken on by Morgan and the other "saviors of the situation" The bulk of those speculative stocks came back into the street on the January rise. Since then a new set of buyers has come on the scene and taken possession of the market the same figures that were conspicuous in leadership during the two or three years preceding the panic of last fall. For two months the stock market has been dominated by the HarrimanF rick and William Rockefeller combination, aid ed and abetted by individuals and pools controlling specialties of more or less im- portance. They have been aided by the free supply of low priced call money and by the fact that in this country and Eu- rope there is accommodating an immense aggregate idle surplus. For the time being the political and business uncer- tainties have not weighed against this one element of cheap money
 The motive which has chiefly inspired this great buying movement by the in terests mentioned has been the need of new financing to carry out projects under way and to provide for floating indebt- edness in various forms. By marking up the price of stocks a degree of con- fidence has been instilled into investors at home and abroad and some of the more recent bond and note issues have been freely subscribed for.
 The corporations doing the borrowing have been obliged to pay good rates for the money thus obtained, plus fat com missions to the bankers that have under taken the Notation. Once again We are beginning to hear of distribution of profits to underwriters. Only few days ago the Morgan house sent checks around to as- sociate underwriters to the s25,000,000 h. terporough loan, amounting in the aggre- gate to no less than $600,O00. This neat little profit was extracted from the mar ket without the benehciaries having to put up a dollar. The public took the loan without batting an eye.
 This coming on top of the triumphant oVer-subscripton of the Pennsylvania s40,OO0,o00 loan gave heart to the other big candidates for money and it is assumed as one of the certanties that fresh bond and note issues which are impending to the extent of not less than s20O, GOO in the immediate future will be absorbed.
 There will be additional issues of se- curities as long as market can be found for them That may come in thirty days or in sixty or ninety days, none can tell. Already not less than $l00, ,000,000 has been borrowed and arrangements made for possibly half as much more, not in- cluding the big Hartman grabs. Just how much money Hartman will be satis- fled with at this time will depend entirely on how the investing public takes to his propositions.
 Union Pacific stockholders authorized him to sell bonds to the amount of $l00,- O00,000, although he confidentially informed them that he might not immediately re- quire more than 5,000,000. Armed with authority to borrow money and meeting willingness on the part of the public
 
 he will play the limit.
 Mir Hartman seems to be inspired just now to give employment to idle men and incidentally to patronize the mills and factories engaged in the production of materials entering into railroad build ing and maintenance. To that extent is this most distinguished malefactor of great wealth becoming a public bene- factor
 The rise in prices of stocks and the | ability of the bull party to hold them at the new level of improvement has given very hopeful tone to sentiment, although Wall street is full of pessimists and men of small faith in the enduring quality of the advance. This element finds ! nothing to be cheerful about in the busi- ness situation. They look at the bank ! clearings, at the reports of commercial | agencies, at the records of failures, at the unsweeping reports of curtailment in the working forces of most corporations and at them any other gloomy features and ] openly declare that the surprising bull movement in the stock market during the ! past six weeks must be artificial. | They say the market has a hollow sound, and is not backed by real sub stance. Those of them who have backed their faith by short sales, confess with i humiliation that they have suffered losses. | The market has continued to eat up their 1 capital and they are sore and dsgrun- i tied lot. They even analyze railroad earn i ings as one of the most unfavorablc symptoms of the times, and declare blunt