The Washington herald., 1908-01-31
WALL STREET NOTES
Traders Believe Presidents
Message Is UnfayOrable.
READING A DISAPPOINTMENT
Coal Road stock Fails to Rise with
Coming of Cold Weather-Plenty
OF Bull Talk on AmaIgamated Cop
per-UniOn and Southern Pacific
Remain Quite Firm All Day.

New York, Jan. S0-The street ad-
yaneed in wisdom, II not in grace, to-day,
for the specific terms of the Presidents
special message 10 Congress seemed to
have become a matter of general knowl-
edge, whereas on the preceding day all
that had been known about il was that
il would be OF an unfavorable character.
Many Of the traders who asserted that
they had seen advance copies of the doc
ument had In writing what they said con-
stituted its salient features, and these
certainly coincided with the general fore
cast as 10 the disturbing nat,sre of the
Presidents remarks
A few minutes after the opening. a
broker on the floor showed to a number Of
his friends a dispatch received by his
firm from its Washington branch office
over its own private wire in which II was
stated that the President had decided TO
modify his message, and from various
sources stories OF the same kind came
during the day with such Celebrations as
that the changes had been made at the
earnest solicitation of prominent Repub-
llcan politicians and response to strong
poFtests from two members OF the Csbi-
net
The traders were rather disappointed in
Reading. They thought It was entitled
to a good rally because as a general rule
the Anthracite coal stocks rise when the
temperature falls. They saw the mer-
curry. as one Of their number expressed
il. trying to keep Itself YARN by snug
Cling down at the bottom Of the tube" i"
but Reading could do no more than share
the frmness OF the general list
There was plenty OF bull talk on Anal.
gamated Copper, bat II concerned the
extent of the outstanding short interest
more than anything in the trade situation
although il was contended in a few
places that the meat OF the metal had
turned the corner. Il was said that the
large holders OF the stock were inclined
to encourage short selling. with view TO
an ultimate squeeze. and 1t was a pecu-
liar fact that. while many of the traders
asserted the belief that the stock was
about to star on an advance Of few
points, they thought IL would be a good
short sale after IL had had such a rise.
During the afternoon q rumOr was cir
culated on the floor to the effect that the
steel corporation had purchased the
Jones & Laughlin property, enc Of its
most important competitors. but the story
was discredited in Well informed quar-
ters. The alleged acquisition. which
seemed 70 have had It's origin in Pitts
burg. was availed OF by a few specula-
tive operators in an effort to drive in the
shorts in the United States Steel that
proved Of indifferent service.
Union Pacific and Southern Pacific. the
former quite active, the latter unusually
active. were quite firm, the fluctuations
in & em being so small as 10 lend hardly
an opportunity to the traders To make
even the most modest kind Of profit on
one side or the other The rumor that
ex-senator Clark. who built the San
Pedro Los Angeles and Salt Lake road
would be an important witness for the
government in the coming suit against
the Hartman system was IN circulation.
but Union Pacific interests said that even
II Mr.. Clark took an attitude hostile TO
them, they had no reason 10 fear any
thing that 1t would be IN his ppower TO
disclose.