The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-14
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER Complaint of Deadlock In Mar
 ket Situation A NEW PHILOSOPHY Curtailment- of Business, Idle Cars, Cheap Money and Light Tonnage
 Is the Present Gospel
 of Prosperity.
NEW PHILOSOPHY
By w. G. NICHOLAS.

New York, March 13-Wall street is again complaining of deadlocked market situation. A great majority of the im- portant people are either out of town or inactive in market sense. Cheap money has apparently ceased to be an enticement to them. Their policy is seemingly A wait ing one. They are waiting on the tariff revision and, although they have a very good line on what Is likely to happen in
 Washington, they realize that it is very unsafe to become welded to a forecast. however highly inspired it may be.
 The feeling among those who are usu- ally very well informed on the Washing ton status is that the worst that can happen will be outlined in the original bill and report of the house ways and means committee, but then nobody can tell. The force of the blow against the sacred institution Protection may get harder instead of easier with the progress Of the bill from it's introduction to the nnal vote, although that is not looked for
 Meantime they are preaching a philoso- phy In Wall street entirely different from that proclaimed two years ago. During the bull times which followed the relapse of 1903 everybody preached the bullish philosophy of advancing prosperity as re- nected in higher wages, increased tonnage on railroads, increased volume of. indus trial production, increased merchandise sales, increased constructive enterprise in every field of activity, and incidentally also increased rates of interest due to the demands of business
 Now we are asked to look on the re- verse face of the medal and find enthus- astic bull inspiration In a general wage reduction, reduced activity in trade and industries, lean tonnage for the railroads and curtailment in every direction. We are told that cheap money in mountainous supply piled up at the expense of busi- ness Is good thing inasmuch as it en- ables the railroads to fund indebtedness incurred during the preceding epoch of extravaganza.
 The fact that about 3000 000 freight cars are rusting in idleness on side. tracks is mentioned as good thing because it gives equipment rest and stops waste on that account. In contrast to the the ory that work for everybody at high wages was good thing for general bus mess because it increased the buying power Of the masses, we are now advised that less work at lower wages Is the real ly good thing, because 1t teaches the masses the virtue of economy and also very visibly increases the efficiency of the working men, who were in danger of becoming careless and sloppy in the per- formance of their duties.
 We hear great deal about the en- larged amount of work which employers are getting out of their men now 1lis drop in revenues of every kind of corpo- ration enables them to put into effect economies which were impossible under the old wide open regime. Also the tariff agitation is a good thing because 1t is a forerunner of settlement and readjust- ment of business on a basis which can be depended on to remain unchanged for a series of years, 10 or 15 at least Wage earners will become educated to the beau ties of tariff revision, because they can then buy almost as much with their re- duced wages as they could before with more dollars at their disposal A dollar will go further after the tariff is cut to pieces. At any rate, they will be res- cued from danger of overlooking and ex- travagant habits.
 Down to date science teaches us that we eat too much anyway-that meat two or three times a week is very much bet ter for the system than two or three times a day. The latter menu is liable to overtax the stomach and lay us open to the attacks of disease. Very evidently the ideas and philosophy in force five or six years ago must be revised as well as the tariff in. order to fit new or impend- ing conditions. Wall street with its pen chant of anticipating things, is trying hard to discount what is in store for us in the way of good things Somehow or other the brave talk does not find refec- tion in bullish sentiment or immediately higher prices for securities
 Wall street is for the time being de- batting place on tariff questions. Out side of Washington there is probably not a place in the country where so much wisdom about tariff is exuded. Every body you meet is prepared to enlighten everybody else on the all-absorbing theme Over and above the clamor Is heard the loud cries of the iron and steel men. The trade war now being waged by the Steel Corporation against the Independents has made a deep wound in the general situation So long as the independents were left safe and free to cut prices and take business away from the corporation, all was lovely, but now that the giant corporation has gone into the open in a struggle for orders, the matter looks entirely different Already an army is descending upon Washington carrying a flag of distress and making ready to beseech Congress to save us, oh save us, from the monster" meaning the Steel Corporation. How will we save you" the statesmen are asking. By letting the schedules alone or by shaving them ever so thinly." is the answer. It is a beautiful, beautiful game that is being framed up. The stage will be Washington, but the wires will be pulled very largely from Wall street.
 Steel threatens to become the central sinister figure in Washington on this tariff revision occasion, even as sugar was during the days of the last Washington tariff campaign. The hunch here is that steel is to be the particular stock whose monuments will be influenced up and down by daily bulletins from the national capital The big insiders of the corpora ton are said to be displeased over the prospect and will do their best to keep their company ont Of the limelieht. It looks as though they might not be able to do that. The corporation being the biggest thing in the industrial field and the most vulnerable to political attack. will also inevitably be the grand central figure and come in for all manner of at- tack. Already people are reviving stories In connection with the sugar scandal of 13 years ago and making unpleasant as to what will happen touch Ing steel It Is recalled that the specula- tive campaign in sugar engineered from Washington during that period developed Into scandal of the first magnitude. It resulted in several national characters very rich through their stock market operations and drew the attention ,f the entire newspaper reading public to the fragrant manipulation engineered rom under the dome of the capitol
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