The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1908-04-06


| weather over the country In the latter
part Of last week brought home TO every
body the realization that the warm days
OF summer had not yet come and that
the higher temperatures Of the preced-
ing fortnight were, in fact, a little prema-
ture, so the general run of developments
IN the financial and business world went
70 enforce the truth mat The process OF
recovery from last years depression IS
not 10 be too rapid and that If il is
unduly hurried from time 10 time, a re-
action from such an advance is bound
10 follow.
While it cannot be said that the stock
market recently has displayed distinct
weakness, It mas yet exhibited those back
and-flling tendencies which indicate that
spectators for the rise have taken profits
and that the governing influence in the
course Of prices is a prevailing impress
sion that for the time being the market
! has advanced to as high a point as il
should, all circumstances considered.
/ Putting it in conservative way. il may
be said that the opinion gained ground
last week that the pace Of general BUSH
ness as recently set had suffered a mod
crate check, and. while the belief was no
! less strongly held than il was before that
! business and financial conditions were i'm
proving, It was yet emphasized that this
improvement was, after all. still IN its
/ early stages. ana that considerable time
must elapse before the upward march
/ can be continued in q vigorous ard un-
/ broken manner.
/ Iron Trade Not SO Brisk.
/ It seems to be conceded, for instance,
that the affairs in the iron and steel trade
/ are not as brisk as they were in the early
part of last month. This is the tale told
by the leading journals in The trade, and
! IL is CorToborated by the private state
ments made by those representing the
large iron and steel producing interests.
| Reasons for the decline are, as appears,
/ that accommodating stocks Of pig iron are
/ becoming such as to make il more diff
cult 10 sustain iron and steel prices, and
the fact that while railway orders for
heavy steel goods do not enlarge, there
/ has been some falling off in orders for
/ the lighter materials. which up 10 this
time have been almost as abundant as in
a normal year.
Collections. taking the country as
whole, are stnl backward, and although
the railways are making most gratifying
/ progress in the matter Of application Of
economies, railway gross earnings do not
increase. This reduction Of railway OPP
Grating expenses is the most cheering
thing that has happened in the business
situation since last years financial dis
/ turbance dealt its blow.
/ Although both freight and passenger
/ traffic was curtailed at this time with
startling suddenness. the railway man
! ayers were not able for months and
months to compress into smaller limits
/ the cost Of operating their lines.
Pennsylvania Cuts Expenses.
They have at last. however. succeeded
/ in accomplishing this result. and al
/ though some of the railway companies
such notably as the Pennsylvania. whose
power of reducing its expenses in hard
/ times has always been phenomenal-are
making greater headway in the effort
than are many others It is yet entirely
/ probable that from now on the railways
in their monthly earnings statements viii
make much better showings in net than
they have previously done.
/ But on the other hand. again. during
the week great strike or shutting down
Of work began in the bitumuous coal
/ regions, throwing out OF employment
/ somewhere between 200ol9 cad 25009
men; further large reductions in wages
We're made in the New England cotton
mills section; there was a weaker trend
I of prices in the copper and other metal
I trades, while the slower movement Of
/ business generally was exhibited ia the
/ weekly hank clearings, which. as a rule,
/ reported unfavorab.e comparisons.
/ on Tuesday the Atchlson directors re-
duced the annual dividend rate on their
/ common stock from 10 8 per cent, and
/ sentiment I'm the financial district so
strongly indorsed the step as a move in
the right direction that the price Cf the
/ Atchison common stock was not de-
/ pressed az all
More Reductions are Expected.
! Whether or not the announcements that
/ similar action had been taken by other
/ leading railway systems would be ac-
lcompanIed by ii fan in market valuations
/ is something that cannot De determined
/ in advance. But the weight OF well-iu-
/ formed opinion is that further reductions
Of this sort VIII be made and the level
al which certain important railway stocks
are selling attests the belief. Neither
/ can any one attempt 20 assert with pro-
pbetie certainty that there VIII not be
additional receiverships for various rail-
way and industrial corporations before
+ the air i'm the business and financial
world is thoroughly cleared.
Regarding the Erie, Wall street hardly
/ knew what 10 think. II did not seem
possible that for lack OF a mere S5.500,000
the great Erie Railroad Company would
be placed in the hands of a receiver. even
temporarily; bat there was plainly hitch
IN obtaining this money. and unless 1t was
obtained or the holders of the notes con-
scented to extend them OF to exchange
/ them for other securities, there was only
/ one path 70 be pursued
Notes Not Concentrated.
The root of the trouble was, of course.
/ that the holdings of these Erie S5,o)ae9
notes maturing on april S. are not con-
centrated. and that the notes are owned
mostly in small sums aud by great va
rletv of people Indeed, at the close OF
the week the Erie management had OBJ
/ tanned knowledge as 20 where only Sl50000
of the notes were located
Were these obligations in the hands OF
few bankers-as it has been all along
commonly supposed that they have been
the matter would have been arranged
long before The Erie needs for its imme-
date pressing requirements about $l5,000.-
600 IN all, and if the note holders referred
to viii be willing, TO exchange their pres
ent unsecured notes for secured notes I'M
der the plan offered to them, the capital
lists interested in the Erie viii provide
the rest of the money needed; and it Is
hardly conceivable that any holder Of the