The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-28

going to the stockholders right along and
 the stealings into the pockets of h.
 siders.
 It would not take very great stretch of the imagination to believe that men who would plunder the government by
 short weights and undervaluation would withhold the stealings from the stock holders. Thus far there has been no sign of general alarm among the sugar com pany stockholders. It may take the act
 ual cutting of dividends to start the ball rolling. About 50 per cent of the number of shareholders are women. All the so- called standard stocks are largely held by the gentle sex. It was the way with Atchison away back there before 1t went Into the hands of receiver.
 -
 There is high authority for the predic- tion that the United States Steel corpo-
 ration will not increase it's dividend again
 in January, although there is much talk
 the other way. The corporation could easily afford to make an increase, but it's management Is averse to too quick &C., ton. It Is altogether probable, however, that the rate will be raised to per cent, or even per cent, in April. From an in- side source it Is learned that the man. agement expects by January to have on It's books 8,50O000 tons of orders, against 4,750,000 tons on the 1st of October. Gossip has been very busy for several
 days with the affairs of the Rock Island Frisco party and MT. Hawley Many
 changes have been rung on the original
 story, which was that friction had arisen
 between Messrs. Yoakum and Winchel on
 the one side and Messrs. Moore and Reid
 on the other the trouble being destined
 to end In the withdrawal of the two first
 named from connection with the Rock
 Island and their alliance with MT. flaw l ley in the framing up of great railroad
 system which would gridiron many west
 ern states and find trunk line outlet to the seaboard by way of the Chesapeake and Ohio.
 l A variation of that piece of gossip was
 another to the effect that all hands were
 preparing to join together in a great mer-
 ger, and that MT. Hawley was framing | up $500 0O0,000 holding company to take
 over the whole shooting match. Inci- | dentally, and somewhat as a side issue,
 Messrs. Moore and Reid were accredited
 with having secured control of Wabash
 and I.ehigh Valley. the latter to go to MT. Reid somewhat in the nature of a
 personal asset.
 | Messrs. Reid and Moore arc also be-
 lieved to be heavily interested in Della
 ware, Lackawanna and Western. Wall
 street gossip has been very busy with
 tn names of Messrs. Moore and Reid for
 a good while. According to popular be-
 lief, these two gentlemen were far and
 away the biggest winners next to Messrs.
 Hartman and Prick. on the flfteen-month ! advance from the depression which fol- f lowed the panic; In other words, that 1 they caught the market coming and go- | ing on a colossal scale. They have be-
 come very important figures in the world
 of finance and have recognized stand | ing as such.
 | The cablegrams from St. Petersburg | announcing that contracts had been given | American contractors for tho construction
 of the Trans Siberian railway system give 1 no names, but 1t Is understood that the
 American syndicate which secured tho job
 Is headed by R. J. Hartman. Mir. Hart | man spent three years in St. Petersburg
 getting acquainted with the situation and with the Czars associates. He was in New York several months last spring and
 summer. organizing his syndicate and making financial arrangements
 | He was armed with tentative contracts from the Russian government which gave him standing here and in London The
 work of rebuilding the trans-Siberian iron highway will consume the better part of five years and will result in great deal of business for American iron and equipment companies. MT. Hartman | is a Buckeye product, having been born near Lima, Ohio. where he is well known. | He and his father were moro or less con-
 nected with the Brice-Thomas party and | have done considerable railroad building l on Hill roads in the northwest and on | lines in Mexico. He is a man of very l great energy and expects to realize from
 the Russian enterprises one of tho great | frotunes of the world.