New-York tribune., 1908-09-06
The Financial World.

4
ures In the present markets development that Il
is difHcuIt-sctual1y impossibIe-tO cslculats to
any extent what may be the effect or public IN
terest Really there is public interest This
is indicated In many ways. And-from the
standpoint of the market speeuatOr-such sx-
hibit Is depressing.
We have had for four or five months cam
paigning. aggressive. persistent. adroit 70 the
utmost extreme-siming continually TO create
conditions and exhibits whereby outsiders would
be induced to come into the market and buy az
advances the stocks made active And. fact be-
yond peradventure at no time has there been
any entrance OF such outside interest The pub
lie has held aloof. The public still holds sloof.
OF course there IS much recitation Of the theory
that outsiders for a long time past have been
buying stocks have been enriched BY the ad-
vances scored: but in any honest fair chronicls
OF what has really come to pass there Is no In
dication Of any such statement The temDta-
tlons have been big Nobody has been tempted.
When at the close OF the week every profes-
sionaI effort made TO have ouoyancy ap-
pear when spurious performances paraded upon
the Stock Exchange. there was OF a sudden an
exhibit Of strength In the Hill stocks Great
Northern went up. Northern Pacific rose This
is supposed to be construable into the notion
that James J. Hill finally falls into step with e
III Harrfman-that the Hill stocks are TO keep
pace with Union Pacific and Southern Pacific
The proposition is pleasing. What is unfortu-
nate Is that not single fact can anywhere oe
discovered for maintenance
SO hagrantIy professional. altogether so artt-
fetal has been the recent upward march OF Har-
riman quotations. that It requires here and there.
and everywhere, explanation and Justification
and therefore II but to any extent, in any wise
there can be brought forward warrant for what
happens in that quarter the average observer
will be full OF apprecative acclamations. Not
one single soul in Wall Street can anywhere md
reason Of any sort whatsoever for rushing up
ward Hartman quotations as recently they have
been rushed. Southern Pacific above par is an
anon,a1v now. Just as II was supposed to be
ridiculous at so three or four years ago james
p Keene could not hold it at so. mystery
1ifts II close 70 no And actually. the net earn
ings exhibit now is barely better than II was
then.
In all Wall Street history nothing surpasses
the current Hartman exhibit. What particu-
IarIv IS exceptional is that Mr.. Hartman hlnl-
self at no time, in any way. disctoses hlnsel1'
IL be has relation to the pressing puOyahI cam
paign nobody discovers it,
Perbaps. before long we may have disclosurs
Of plans for the fotatiOn Of new large security
tssues Professional Wall Street believes that a
bigger Southern Pacific dividend is coming.
larger Southern Pacific common stock Issue IS
Hkelier.
Money market conditions not merely stay
sgreeable-but tendency Is toward still better.
lower rates. For three or four months the
banks OF the East have been affecting TO be de-
pressed over the prospect OF demands for crop
moving purposes AS we approach the conclu-
sion of harvest time this sort OF theorism loses
IT'S eruesomeness For reasons In variety the
West is going to demand less accommodation
this wear than has been the record for decades
past.
They who have the right to make estimates
thew who have consequential position in the
bank world-forecast for the next half year
s,,rnIus of funds in New York unprecedented
Up To this time accommodation at the banks
has been extended almost exclusively to those
who are able to produce Stock Exchange Sc
curfties for collateral but if the forecasts here
quoted are reliable. this policy must be much
moderated
As has over and over again been urged in this
ra1;au- the natural outcome Of markets like
those recently prevailing must be that prudent
investors will prefer bonds 20 stocks That tbs
Ia true has had many illustrations lately Take
for example the Missouri. Kansas & Texas re-
funding As especially characterized here. which
have risen from IS to 81 upon absorption pur-
chases So throughout the market the record
shows.
Truth is the Stock Exchange list is large
with bond issues selling far below what upon
any fair estimate. their value is
In general market improvement further
demand for stocks-it would seem 70 be 1aH
to expect that investment and speculative favor
both would run toward specialties- The way
New York Air Brake is acting somewhat lnu--
Gates this. Though not yet officially disclosed
IL Is known that extraordinary Developments
have recently come to pass TO the advantage u
the property. Though formerly there "@s
scepticisrn touching the forecast, 1t may nov
be conservativeIy prOphesied that the Ne" fo'A
Air Brake and the Westinghouse Air BRAKE a7
destined to be united. unified Together uis'
control the business o; the continent Throus'
consolidation there will be beneficial results
the railroads of the eountry-vast net oensAD'
10 the air brake companies themselves.
It is pleasing Wall Street greatly 70 assam
Thomas w. Lawson just now AZ the outstar
of his campaign il was insisted that ne hao ="
basis whatsoever for any OF his claims anu
there was uproarious jubiIatiOn in the predieuo'
that he would very quickly be bowed do"H ~
defeat and discredIt And in the middle Oh '
week this spirit Of enthusiasm had much man man
festation-Mr Lawson's Bay State Gas tal"D'
to half the price at which It was recently IN'
ed But, somehow Lawson persists in MS "
gram Of disappointing Wall Street envleS
Wall Street enmities. And on the last Gay
the Stock Exchange week. his stock suuue
lifted itself substantially-reachtng to"SFU =