The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-25
PROFIT TAKING IN BUSY WALL STREET Stocks Are Changing Hands Rapidly In These Days PLENTY OF ROOM AHEAD lndustriaIs Have Received a Check on Account of Trouble Over
 Tariff In Washington for
 the Past Week.
PLENTY OF ROOM AHEAD
BY w. 0. NICHOLAS.

| BY w. 0. NICHOLAS.
 New York, July 24-(speeial.) )-There is undoubtedly considerable distribution of high-priced railroad stocks going on. The pools and large individual operators are the ones who are engaging in this busi- ness of profit-taking. They find the pub | lie rather less anxious to buy than they were few weeks ago and consequently l manipulation is more fiagrantly in evil | dence. This Is particularly the case In Steel, Union Pacific, Reading and Copper. It looks very much as though the favorites in the intermediate grade, like Rock Island preferred, Chesapeake and
 Ohio, Southern railway preferred, Rio Grande and few others may have some further advance ahead of them, they being in developing stage. The properties behind them are being worked into higher | efficiency and greater dividend earning capacity. There Is still plenty of room l ahead for legitimate progress both in a physical sense and in the stock market. Stocks like Pennsylvania, New York Central, St. Paul, Illinois Central. Louis vile and Nashville and Atchison show 1 no decided tendency in any direction. The stocks are strongly held by investors and the speculative interest therein while large is not tho domina ting factor.
 Possibly New York Central may be an exception to this statement as there Is always an active stock market interest In that Issue. It has been particularly industrious for the last year Pennsyl- iu hIu 1F important railroad stocks from manipula- ton.
 The industrials, which have been not ably increasing in favor for months, got check this week on account of the trou- ble over tariff revision in Washington. Wall street has not yet made up its mind what the dispute is going to amount to in the actual reconstruction of the bill now before Congressq That MT. Taft Is enforcing his views with all the vigor possible and that the measure as 1t came from the Senate Is likely to undergo im- portant notifications is taken for grant ed. but the exact measure of the Pres idents power is the undeterminate factor
 As matters now stand specialists in in- dustrial shares are disposed to await defi- nfte knowledge before enlarging their risks. There are exceptions to this in- decision and among the stocks which have been in favor regardless of Wash ington news Is Crucible Steel Pittsburg stock dealt in almost exclusively in that city. It has attracted the attention of the iron and steel contingent in Wall street, however, and a good many New York orders have gone to the smoky city for investment In that issue.
 There seems to be very little let-up, If any in the progress of the iron and steel industry. The corporation has practically stopped taking orders beyond October The policy seems to be to let the inde- pendents fill up their books at present prices and leave a freer field for the taking of new business after the present rush is over.
 The return of MT Morgan stimulated a new speculation as to the chances of an increase in the dividend rate on Steel common. There Is no doubt that the corporation can afford to pay a larger rate and that its earnings will continue to grow. Nevertheless there is earnest and sometimes angry discussion as to the wisdom of making the increase at this time. On the other hand Is heard the argument that owners of the common stock are entitled to a larger share of the earnings than they are getting and that there Is neither justice nor good sense in Keeping them out of money they are entitled to. On the other hand 1t Is held that 1t would be extremely impolitic to raise the dividend rate right at the end or two years of hard times and just al the very beginning of enlarged earnings
 The claim is made that an increase In the dividend rate now would be construed most unfavoraby by the investing public, which would look upon the move as strict ly in the interest of Wall street They profess to regret the growing disposition to cater to the stock jobbing end of the game instead of attending strictly to the manufacturing end. They do not want to see stock speculation become the chief end of the management. It is horrifying to think of the big insiders playing the stock market and making the great cor poraton an agency for coups on the stock exchange. As though this had not been one of the chief ends of 75 per cent of the big men in control of the company and it's policies
 Many of the biggest plungers in Wall street are active in the management of the United States Steel corporation and have been from the beginning. Next to MT. Hartman the most important oper-
 
 has been Mir H. c. Prick the virtual dictator of Steel Mir. Prick devotes one day of the week to the business of the Steel corporation and for two years or more he has been the great single figure in the administration of the giant in- dustrial.
 It Is of common knowledge that the tremendous manipulation which has been going on In the Steel issues for the last eight months or more has been directed by small coterie of financial leviathans which makes its headquarters not a thou sand miles from the banking house of J. P. Morgan & Co. No stock In the street has been more openly manipulated than Steel.
 The decision of the board of govern ors of the New York stock exchange to abolish the unlisted department is by all odds the most important move ever made by the exchange to estab- fish itself in the confidence of the gen eral public. The unlisted department has been the curse of Wall street. It has been the mask behind which some of the rawest swindles have been per- petrated-swndles which have dis graced the name of the exchange and brought upon Wall street much of the merited criticism about which 1t so weepingly complains