The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-09
ADMIT THEIR DEFEAT
Tkere Are Many Foundation Reasons for Strong and Continuous Up- ward Movement in General
 Business Conditions.
By w. G. NICHOLAS.


 | reed of qualification. The war is over, with due emphasis on the is. The inde- pendents learned their lesson. After en-
 durance had been worn to a frazzle and 1 the corporation was forced to take the 1 offensive, not an independent won out a
 contract the corporation wanted. For
 several weeks the fight was kept up and
 the harpoon was sunk deep into the flesh
 of the shining ones who had imposed on 1 the good nature of the Leviathan. 1 The corporation gave an illustration of 1 what it could do when aroused and when
 in a mood to administer discipline. Never ] again" is the maxim of the independents who imagined they could play horse with
 their big rival and cut threats for busi-
 ness whenever they pleased It is not
 likely that there will be a resumption of the hard and fast agreements entered
 into with such cordiality at Mir. Garys
 periodical Waldorf-Astoria banquets,
 when every manufacturer in the country
 ate his canvas-baeks. drank his wine and
 entered into a pledge of good fellowship
 and maintenance of high prices. Such
 agreements will not be necessary in the
 future and the able Mir Gary will be
 spared the expense of these feasts. The
 independents will be good without that
 heretofore social incidental.
 l It transpires that just about the time
 the independents were lowing their necks 1 to the yoke, the most dolorous cries of agony were being issued and the atmos- ] phere was surcharged with gloom; the l big insiders were covering their shorts and taking the buying side of the stock market. Close friends of these same in
 slders are now telling their acquaintances that they were getting a tip to buy at the very moment the public was being told of the hopeless demoralzation of the iron and steel trade That was when Steel common was selling under 45 and Steel preferred under no. From which it would appear that the activities of the big insiders In the Steel Corporation are not confined to the manufacture and sale
 of iron and steel products. It has been
 said that the difference between the farmer
 and the agrculturst is that the farmer farms the soil and the agriculturist farms the farmer.
 1 Similarly it may be said that on occa- | sions the big people connected with the ! Steel Corporation farm the public on the
 Stock Exchange. There Is nothing crlm- | inal and from the Wall street viewpoint | nothing morally wrong in taking advan- I tage of the inside information to make a
 big turn in the stock market; yet 1t might strike an uneducated and uniniated public that 1t was hardly the square | thing to be filling the press with official and authorized transformation as to the known trade situation to frighten the out siders into letting go of their stocks in order to take in the liquidated stuff. Just such turn as that was made on the New York Stock Exchange. Things of this sort may explain why the mag mates and captains of industry are able to buy private cars steam yachts, coun- try homes, pearl necklaces of fabulous value, project the construction of private theatres and indulge in all the luxuries that imagination and bottomless bank &C., counts can suggest.
 There are many foundation reasons for anticipating a strong and continuous up- ward movement in the general situation and for a wholesome and pronounced re- vival of business in every quarter. It takes considerable nerve to prophecy ma
 terial advances in stock market prices
 above the current high levels Yet there
 Is no apparent good reason why this
 should not be the case. There is an abundance of cheap money, and 1t is no
 longer held away from people who want
 1t. Wall street still has the call on vast
 amounts of capital, and there is still
 good safe margin of profit or funds bor-
 rowed from the banks at per cent call
 and per cent time, and invested in se- curities paying to ' per cent.
 The big people who have the inside
 grasp on these funds are beyond a doubt
 still employing their credit to drag off
 this handsome scalp, and they are likely
 to continue to do so until competition for funds gets stronger and wipes out this chance of reaping 1 to per cent
 margin in the stock market. That will
 come along in due time when the re-
 vival in trade and industry progresses somewhat further. In the middle trades
 the talk is now all one way. The country
 has gone through two years without re- newals, and the wear and tear on every going thing is making demands which
 can no longer be ignored. Iron and cop per and every other kind of metal must
 be converted into manufactured articles for use on growingly large scale from now on.
 In the textile trades the same conditions prevail People have worn out their old
 clothes and renewals are everywhere en- forcing themselves. In every quarter
 there is employment of idle and short time labor.
 Indications are that this sort of thing
 will get better, and that before the end
 of th ear there will be work for every
 body living wages. Already the wis
 dom is uitted of laying off men and
 shortening heir time of work instead of
 cutting the .scale of pay. After having
 gone through lean period of a year or
 two there will be a higher degree of ef- 1iciency in the labor market for a good while ahead. That goes without saying and the millions of men who had allowed themselves to get careless and sloppy will try harder than before to earn their money.
 One very cheerful feature of the present situation and of the outlook is that en- l terprise will have no trouble getting financial backing. AS the floating indebt- edness of corporations is being funded, large sums will be released and made available for use In construction and in the development of resources in every di- rection. Railroads have thus far not ob- tained great sums of cash for treasury use, but they have been enabled to clear the decks and put themselves in shape for new things when the time arrives for bra anching out-and everybody agrees that that time Is rapidly approaching, The 85, ,OO0, GOO people in this country are mighty consumers. They have boundless money to buy things with and with the atmosphere cleared and the wreckage re- moved from around about them. they 'loosen up'' And besides. there is one great underlying factor which must never be lost sight of and never forgotten in xrfh b,fri