The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-11
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER Big People Are Still Playing
 Stock Game TRADE STILL UNCERTAIN Leaders in Wall Street Pay But Little Attention to Tariff News-Feel That Friends Will Take
 Care of It.
TRADE STILL UNCERTAIN
By w. G. NICHOLAS.

| sion and a marked difference of opinion For time indications favored the theory that the market was scheduled for a strong upward movement which might last for several weeks, or even longer 1 indeed it is by no means. sure that this | is not the programme. Conditions are especially favorable to semi -panulative bull campaign. Money is cheap and abundant.
 All the funds that might be required are at the command of the big market lead CTS and there is no real reason why they should not use 1t to push up the price of | their goods. It is true that business in | general is in an unsatisfactory state but nobody believes that it will continue that way many more months It is also noted | as a feature of the situation that it will not be very long after general business begins to improve before there will be strong competitive demand for availa- ble capital now lying idle in mountain 1 oas piles in the vaults of the banks and | trust companies. At the present time this money is begging borrowers and is especially at the disposal of that all-pow- l erful inside Wall street combination which controls both the banks and the machin- cry of the stock market.
 While the trade situation remains in a state of uncertainty and inactivity, there l will remain in the stock market an earn est and more or less aggressive bear par ty which takes counsel of immediate sur roundings and visible conditions, refusing | to look ahead or to recognize the impos- sibility of retardation of progress. The optimism which has been so often voiced by J. P. Morgan and men of his type that anybody who bets against the pros perity of this country Is bound to go broke. does not apeal to the bearish con- tingent in times like these. Their hor- izon is limited and they can never be educated to take a long view ahead. Chastisement only has a temporarily christening effect. They lose their money. but learn nothing. They always look through blue spectaces and to them the future Is always gloomy.
 To the speculator it is a matter of vital importance whether the plans of the big people mean an upward movement of stocks and a sustained market around the top of the advance or merely play for the purpose of kiting prices and then un- loading. This latter game is an old one and Is part of every speculative market. Those who buy stocks on inside tips at low prices or on the way up do not sell out when the market is to their advant- 1 age before 1t Is theirs. It is very easy to get tip to buy and very different proposition to get tip of when to sell. More money has been lost by not know ing when to get out of the market than has been lost by not knowing when to get in. There is legitimate and fair expla- nation for this. During the progress of a bull movement those who are behind the game and dealing the cards want company Their play is to make mar ket upon which to sell their speculative communications.
 Manifestly 1t would be the height of folly for them to take the public into their confidence when the climax of the game has been reached. It is their office and mission to get rid of the stocks they have bought and realize a profit there from. It Is theirs to get there first with the goods. The great house of Morgan was criticized for stipulatlng in that ship building promotion that they should be permitted to get rid of theirs first The insiders in Wall street have demanded that privilege always as one of the charges against projects designed to sep arate the public from it's money. It is regarded as a legitimate tax.
 A really interesting political-hnancial situa ton is growing out of the fight for control of the New York traction game. It Is of very much more than local value in news sense It involves the material and political fortunes of two very power ful opposing camps. Mir. T. r. Ryan. who is believed to be in absolute control of the Tammany machine of New York, Is en- gineering the juggle for the reorganiza- tion of the traction situation. Interfering with these Ryan plans Is the McAdoo tunnel proposition. allied to which are the looked upon the McAdoo invasion of New 4 house of J. P. Morgan & Co.,, operating through Harvey FislIe & Co.
 Originally the Fiske establishment looked upon the McAdoo invasion of New York as its own pet proposi. ..on. Includ- ed in its party were almost all the rail roads entering New York and It's contigu- ous territory and also the strong men identified with these great Transportation interests. Almost besore anything was known about the project, over s45, 600 had been invested in it.
 Then came the panic In 1907 and it be- came a difficult matter to get the addi- ! tional money needed to complete the work something like s25,o00O0o to s30,O00, : coo. 1t was at this stage that Morgan & Co.'s help was asked and they got behind their own friends and side partners of the house Of FislSe. There the matter now stands. with Morgan and his enor- 1 mously rich alliances on the one side and ! Ryan, with his hitherto invincble con i nections. on the other, facing each other In deadly hostility. Financial interest | representing more than a billion dollars are arrayed on each side
 The battle will be for the election of a mayor and city government of New York next fall and forces are already at work which will mean the downfall of one faction or the other It so happens that the better clements already get | ting in line to oppose Ryan and his CO horts The decisive factor will be the tax | payers who are already oppressed by 1 Tammany msrule and sore beyond meas | ure at the burdens which have been inn posed upon them. It will probably be | Tammanys greatest fight for life in 20 | years, with more at stake in money and I power and with more far-reaching effects | likely to result. The nervous action of l the tape which registers the prices of se- | curities involved reflects the interest which Wall street is already taking in the matter.
 Wall street indifference to tariff revision l continues to be really wonderful feature l of the stock market This is due beyond | question to persistent faith in high | quarters in the theory tor fact. if you l please to put 1t that way) that revision | is in the hands of its friends. The feel ing still holds impregnably that as little harm possible will be inflicted upon business and material interests by Con- gress. The noise and flub-dub which is ! embodied in the so-called news from