The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-19
HARTMAN STOCKS
 STILL IN THE LEAD Although Magnate Is Bead His
 Interests Are Alive PROMPT MEASURES USED Kuhn, Loeb & Co.'s Acticn in secur ing Proxies for Stockholders
 Meeting Will Continue the
 Hartman Policies.
PROMPT MEASURES USED
BY W. G. NICHOLAS.

l ''s ds ISiOT1OEAS.
 New York, September 1s.-(Special)-
 looks as though the big market pluneers might have chance to complete the dis
 tribution of their colossal speculative lines, process which was interrupted py the death of MT. Hartman. The mar hee advanced almost without a fractional reaction for the several days immediately following MT. Harrimans demise and tbera seems To be a widening out of general interest. It will be very hard for the pubic to break away from the Hartman stocks which have long been popular laVorites, and 1t may be that interest In them will continue indefinitely. The uncertainty which must attach to the future of the Hartman pronertias Tor good while to come will keen alive selling interest among holders and speculators, as well as a desire m tba part of important banking elements ,den- tined with the Hartman fortunes to saa the leading issues go into the stronn DoAes or prominent investors. Rumor ana gossip are keenly alive to what ,s soins on In Union Pacific, Southern Pa sif1o and allied properties.
 ihe action of the boards of directors m these two companies in prompt1v t,I1ing vacancies by the election of pronounced ..al- man men and in naming for chair man of the executive committees Pobart D. Loyett has set at rest ter,noro ,,.i oiiiy talk of an opposition party talxing shafge or the great railroads built 1In ny the deceased magnate and carrvina out or morphining his policies as thev see ,. Tt. lHe very prompt measures adopted oy % huhn, Loeb & Go. and the National city bank in the securing of nroxies fo. the stockholders meetine to he haI5 next month foreshadows a continnanca ol the old regime for at least another year. What will happen after that is a tueiae Whlch engages the attention of wal street and upon which Is predicated much speculation in the market.
 TOT the time being gossps are making much more than the subject Is worth os reports that MT. Morgan and b,s frianSa Will go into control. What seems to oiva greatest concern at the moment is fhat aoout the segregation plan for the nlac- Ing or the $30O. 900 Union Pacific treae- ury assets into the hands of A hoIdin. company for the benefit of stockholders III general. There is very good reason to believe that the plan will be carriea ont along the lines fixed by Mir. Ha~riroen ana ms counselors. It was a plan which hao occupied much of their time for a year or more and was well matured Tt Is believed to be an advanced and com pieted work of art, avoiding the mis- takes of the earlier and cruder Nortbarr Pacific Securities company ana on,., plying with the new laws passed bv con- sress and state legislatures
 The trick for borrowing stock for usa at annual elections is old as the stoc1r eaehange' but 1t was probably never employed In such wholesale way as py Kuhn, Loeb & O. in the ease op Union Pacific. The books closed on Mon day last for Union Pacific's annual cleo ton on October F. and late on that dav IL was stated on good authority that the house mentioned had borrowed 400 oOo shares for election purposes.
 The announcement was coupled with tba
 knocking remark that when the stool, was returned to its owners there would be more natural market for Union Pa elhc The intimation conveyed fin the statement and comment was that an artificial scarcity of that particular stock had been created and the market given misleading appearance of being enor- mously oversold.
 A paragraph is doing duty to the effect that insiders" expect the United States steel Corporation to do a business of' shWVooO'o00 next year, and realize thereon net profit of s2o0. .000,000. The net nrofit clause may be all right, but not the sl,oVo'ooo'ooo feature. And in that dis crepancy is found warrant for renewal of honest criticism of a booklxeenine practice of the big corporation-one in consistent with professions of ideal frank ness in dealings with the public.
 The Steel Corporation is held up as a model of corporation publicity ethics. The inquiry therefore naturally arises fr, official reports statements of gross earn ings very much larger than the facts warrant. The report of gross earnings for 1907, for instance, represented them to pc s'os,VooVoo. on which there was earned approximately s165,000, ,000. Now the truth Is that the $l65'o0o,ooo profit was earned on an aggregate business of $430 0o0, GOO to s460,O00,000. Experts agree that iron and steel products are marketed by the mills on average normal price of about $40 ner ton. (The distributing price in 1908 and nrst six months of 1909 was considerably under s40.)
 The Corporation produced Il 800. GOO tons or finished product in 1907. The produc- ton for 1910 cannot well exceed IA .oOO GOO tons. Multiply that by $40 per ton and we have $56O.000,000 allow s45 and the total Is s630, 100000. Between larger amount and the advertised $1.O0O 0OO.O0O there is a big gap. It Hooks better" however, to iudhe 91uV,VOUV year on $l, ,OO0, 000 GOO business than on business of $56O, ,0O0 900 to s6So, ,00o. o00-that is, better for populis- tic contemplation. It Hooks better to appear to be earning 20 per cent on protected industry than actually earning 70 to 45 per cent.
 The bookkeeping nigger in the United States Steel Corporation woodpile is the practice it has of letting it's subsidiary companies sell raw material and partly finished products to other subsidiary companies, each such move appearing as an independent transaction and permit ting of a duplication of amounts and swelling of the aggregate. It in no man. ner affects net results, but gives the public wrong impression of the volume of busniess done.
 Pig iron production is breaking all records. It is running 14.0OO tons per week higher than the previous highest. 625.000 tons per week, and at the rate of 28,000,0 900 tons year. Estimates of lake tonnage of iron ore for the season have been gradually raised from 35 0O0 to 45,000,0O0 tons. The best year heretofore was 100000 tons. The iron ore fleet will | be through it's work by November B. in time to take on wheat, corn and oats ! for winter storage to the limit of capao- | ity. This elevator feature adds matext- ally to the revenue of the ore fleet One of the Wall street news agencies | sought confirmation of the report that | to MT. Harriman's death, To the inquiry Morgan had been at Arden, and that in | times AftA0 tfn hoA