The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-07
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER Stock Market Is In ManipuIa-
 tive Control CURRENCY BILL HELPS President Corey Goes to Russia to Close Large Deal for Steel Rails. Great Prosperity Is Coming
 to the United States.
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.


 BY w. G. NICHOLAS.
 New York, June 6.-(Special )-At no
 time in recent years has the stock mar
 ket been more absolutely in manipula-
 tive control than at the present writing
 small group of powerful men and inter
 ests are in complete charge of the mar
 ket, and they are doing with it about as
 they please. Those who happened to get
 in right have been making money. Those
 who guessed wrong have lost. Judgment
 has counted for little.
 The group of big men in the saddle
 have command of the loanable cash of
 chain of the strongest banks and trust
 companies in America, and they have
 made the best possible use of 1t for their own advantage. By reason of their com
 mand of this vast floating capital they have been able to mark up the price of stocks to such height and In such a manner as to substantially influence the popular sentiment and by so doing reap stupendous stock market profits for them selves, aid materially in creating gen. eral investment demand for bonds and incidentally in giving nerve and courage l to the great business community at large. l Every one of the big men who have | been engaged in this profitable and pa- | triotlc campaign comes under the general | head of "malefactors of great wealth. 1 against whom the heavy artillery of the | politicians and newspapers have been di- | rected for the past three years. They | seem to have come out of the battle in | fairly good shape, and to have pulled | back upon the plane of solvency tens | and hundreds of thousands of their fel- | low citizens. They have been somewhat l scared and hardened by their strenuous experience, but in the summing up 1t is l found that they are more strongly en- | trenched in the ctadels of finance and | business than ever before. They tower | above the wreckage of panic and priva- 1 tion and general bankruptcy with more 1 money and more power than before the | intense warfare upon them began. l. There Is a prevailing belief that the l stock market is to be held around current l levels until after the Chicago convention 1 and then allowed to take care of itself.
 The obvious purpose of the great bull l campaign has been fairly we'll accomp- 1 lished One of the greatest stock mar l ket killings on record, if not the very | greatest, has been made, and vast l aggregate volume of new bonds floated | successfully thus enabling the great malefactors to proceed with their plans | of railroad extension and combination 1 They seem to have provided themselves very well with what new capital they
 needed regardless of what may here | after occur, and they are therefore away 1 up on Easy street." to use popular | colloquialism. Being thoroughly saturated with the gamblers philosophy, mot 10 1 care blank what happens to anybody f bor fr mo are not giving much thought to the rest | of the world. Their wants are provided l for.
 | The passage of an emergency currency | bill exerted a helpful effect in Wall | street. A great many of the men who | criticized the intrinsic merit of the meas ure and deplore the fact that the door | has been opened for the issuance of a
 currency which may degrade and dilute 1 the aggregate volume for the promotion | of speculation admit that 1t will be very l likely to reduce the chances of future | panics. They regard the bill as mere | stop gap, however, which will in the | course of time give way to legislation for permanently increased currency sta | bility.
 i The mere fact that 1t will be possible l to inject into the volume of money any 1 where up to $500 O0O, 900 almost at mo- l ment's notice will go far toward averting | the necessity for its use. To that extent, | therefore, the law will be serving a use | full purpose. Most bankers are of the l opinion that even though the bill had not l become law, there would be plenty of | money available for the movement of
 crops next fall. The authorization of l big lot of money may be regarded | in a sense as ''cinching a cnch.' The | bull leaders of the stock market made | the most of the enactment and used 1t as | one of their trump cards. Once again
 was Washington employed in the gam 1 blers' game on the stock exchange. It ] has been used in that capacity many | times during the past year.
 | 1t cannot be said truthfully that the
 players in the stock market are paying much attention to the republican conven- l ton at Chicago. It is assumed in advance that Mir Taft will receive the nomna- ton and that platform will be adopted pledging the party In power to revision l of the tariff "by its friends
 | This puts the burden of carrying the election on the manufacturing interests l and already much is heard of the enor-
 nous campaign fund which IS to be raised | entirely independent of railroad and in- | surance corporations which of late years | were the heaviest contributors.
 l The .ostentattous eagerness of the Stan | dard oil bunch and of MT. Hartman to aid in the continuation of My policies" | is looked on as one of the curious politi- l cal developments of the hour in Wall i street, and 1t is having no little market effect. as indicating a general amnesty
 among. the high powers of finance and | politics.
 | Beyond a doubt the public has been roped Into the buying of stocks on an ex- | tensive scale. It stood up nobly under | the sharp break of last week and added | to it's holdings on the subsequent recov- | cry This seems to be the almost unani-
 nous opinion of brokers and commission | houses How 1t will act in the event of a | big decline after the national convention
 Is an open question.
 | If the promise of substantial indus l trial and trade revival is made good the great multitude of miscellaneous investors | may conclude to hold on and buy more. l The outlook, however, Is for an usually violent and nasty campaign, and should
 this theory be confirmed there Is likely to
 occur a month or two of disquieting un-
 certainty and incidental liquidation. The
 big market. leaders now in command are
 no doubt putting themselves in shape for | such a contingency They will probably
 be found fully insured if the house should l burn down.
 The break in pig iron was offset by the | simultaneous announcement that negotia- tions were on for the purchase of hum l dreds of thousands of tons of steel rails