The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09
THE STOCK MARKET GOES DEADLY DULL Industrial Situation Is Brighten
 ing Slowly POLITICS VERSUS CAPITAL General Opinion Seems To Be That Political Agitation Is the Chief
 Deterrent To Resumption
 of Business.
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.


 New York. February S.-(Specal) The | stock market suddenly went deadly dull with weak spots developing in many places along the line The complexion of the industrial situation does not brighten 1 and those who have looked for comfort in that direction are obliged to confess dis | appointment Occasional reports are | ceived of freshened activity in certain l lines of production, but the overwhelming 1 weight of information is the other way. Railroads are most conspicuously busy in 1 the curtailment of expenses, but that is only because this is the largest employ | ing interest in the United States, and the tendencies developed in that quarter are more clearly discernibe than in anything | else. It does not bode well to have the railroads cutting off trains and idscharg | ing men by tens of thousands and scaling down the volume of expenditures wherev- l CT the knife can be applied.
 A very large element in and out of l Wall street is strongly committed to the | theory that the attitude of the political | parties is the. cheif deterrent to a resump- 1 tion of business, and that no general or | permanent improV ement can be looked for until political matters become moro settled and the parties assume a more friendly position toward capital. The writer would like very much to leave politics out of discussion on stock mar ket and financial history of the day, but at this juncture such omission would be hatchet mutilation of the facts and the record. Politics has become one of the leading factors of the stock market. It is exerting a very tangible and leading Influence upon mems minds and figures
 
 clusions.
 Rightly or wrongly most men are say ing at this writing that if capital could be guaranteed reasonable safety from po- litical attack it would come out of hiding and reinvigorate commerce and industry, giving unemployment to the many hun dreds of thousands now out of work and starting In motion once more the compli- cated machinery of business. Rightly or wrongly the opinion grows stronger day by day that the Presidents last message and its almost unqualified indirsement by the spokesmen of the opposition party are having very bad and far reaching effect on business. People are asking themselves what inducement is there for money to seek employment or to back en- terprises when the leaders of both po- litical parties are noisily competing for a chance to hit 1t on the head with a bludgeon or an axe Much of the polit- ical talk now being indulged in Is of the most disQuietng kind and without doubt contributes to the general fund of dstrust and open fear for the future.
 It contributes to the prolongation of hard times and postpones the day of a resumption of activity. So long as the, theory could be reached that nobody was hurt except Wall street and the gam blers pervading that niquitous section ttnfh nh te and shouted with joy. That theory hav- ing been exploded and the range of sac- rihce and loss having extended from one ocean to the other and from Canada to the southernmost limits of the country, the politicians are becoming confused and while waiting for a line are, shouting more noisily than ever against capital and it's supposedly sinful representa- lives.
 Much depends in a business and finan- cial way on whether this clamor is to be prolonged until national conventions meet, and on whether the gospel of class hatred is to be embodied in the plat forms of the republican and democratic parties, as now seems altogether prob able. Until tendencies in this particular become more clearly defined and what ever uncertainty there is Is disslpated, little need be anticipated in the way of business revival, so most people in this part of the world fully believe. Mean time the hardship of the situation is be- ing daily emphasized by an endless se- rial of further discharge of working peo pie and the closing down of mills and factories.
 One eminent captain of industry has gone on record as saying there are al- ready 100000 unemployed people in this country belonging to or affiliated with trades unions. These figures seem too large to be true, yet the statement was made by a man who ought to know, and who is not given to loose talk. All cities are more or less affected by the suspen- sion stoppage of industrial activity. but probably none so poignantly as New York, whose teeming population Is all ready beginning to suffer actual phy- sical privation in many of the poorer quarters. On the east and lower west sides tens of thousands of children go to school every morning breakfastless. This on the testimony of sorrowful, but helpless teachers.
 A very wealthy man in discussing the business and political situation with the writer talked in this fashion: 'I have been trying to make myself l believe that the worst was over, and that the hard times would be of brief | duration. I find my faith in this posi- | ton shaken. What is there to encour- | age people of means and enterprise to do | anything? l look about me and see lit-