Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-26

common and preferred is the marvel OF
the street. and high testimony to the
skill of those intrusted with the stock
exchange end Of the affairs Of the great
corporation. Admittedly the iron trade
is in bad shape. excepting in few OF
its features. such as wire and nails and
tin plate. More than that, the outlook for
a revival is bad. Confidentially. nine out
Of ten men actively In the trade admit
this and discuss most gloomily the out
look 1t is an open secret that outside of
the trust and two or three especially ia
vored concerns the big producing COM
that such companies as Republic Steel.
Cast Iron Pipe. Bethlehem. Schloss-Shef-
field and Lackawanna are well content
to make both ends meet. and some OF
them are not even doing that. Republic
Steel. for instance. is running only about
% per cent Of capacity, and has virtually
not made a dollar since October. 1t Is
down to the 100000 limit of free as
sets which it is required to maintain
under pledge given the bankers at the
time of the fotation Of 100000 loan
three years ago. a condition which would
seem to foreshadow the passing OF divi-
dends on the preferred or at best a harsh
reduction thereof. Control Of this COM
pany is lodged in the hands OF the same
parties who owned Tennessee Coal and
Iron before it was shaken out of their
grip and swallowed by the big steel
trust. There has been more or less talk
about the contemplated absorption of the
Republic by the same Voracious trust.
but there is little basis for the gossip.
If the trust really wanted Republic 1t
would probably first step on it and then
take In the mangled remains. Cast Iron
Pipe is very strongly held and could pass
dividends without bringing much Of the
stock out. whereas with Republic a big
slump in prices might result.
X
The notation Of the 10000 900 Pennsyl-
vania loan is about the most encouras-
ing thing that has happened in the bond
ton company. whose credit is among the
best. had to pay nearly ~ per cent for
the money. but that is far better than
any other railroad corporation has done
for long while. and better than any Of
the other candidates for new capital can
do today. AS a rule railroads are entire
ly willing to 60 as high as 6 per cent. and
not few Of them have been forced to sell
short-time notes at actually usurious
terms. John w. Gates has been putting
lot Of money into short-time railroad
paper. getting In some. cases as high as
10 per cent.
''saviors'' are quietly maturing ambi-
tious plans for the reorganization of some
Of the corporations they have been man.
aging. and also for otherwise profiting at
the expense of the properties intrusted to
their keeping. After using other peoples
money and their own to buy up stocks at
panic prices in October and November.
which the same were sold out in most part
at tremendous profit on the big January
RISE they are now planning further con-
quests. They found 1t SO easy to rig the
market while engaged in the laudable
work of saving the country that they
have no mind to leave the field. AS Mr..
Thomas Fortune Ryan said Of Manhat-
tam they find Wall street a nice green
clover patch, we'll populated with lambs.
The market story of the past year af-
fords a first-class illustration of the claim
that Wall street operations are not gam
bling To gamble is to take a chance.
The insiders and market leaders who
have been in charge of late never take q
chance. They are the rankest kind of
sure thing players. They have furnished
testimony against themselves on the gen.
eral broad Indictment brought by popu-
lists and demagogues that Wal street Is
q brace game. run for the benefit Of in