The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-22
BUYERS OF STOCKS
GRAB OFF PROFITS
Market Holds U p Nell Under
Assaults of Bears
BULLS VERY CONFIDENT
Break in Union Pacific Has Been
Caused Entirely BY HarrIman's
State of Health Which Is
Not Very Good.
BULLS VERY CONFIDENT
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

STOCK market bore up remarkably we'll
under greater flood Of profit taking than
has been witnessed at any time in years.
Everybody seemed to be moved by the
same impulse at the same time. vet out
side OF a few leaders which had advanced
most wildly a great majority of the is
Sues of the active list suffered only mod
crate reactions. That the market did not
slump badly was no fault of commission
merchants, who for days had been bur-
dening the mails with advice to customers
to take their profits and sit back await
Ing a reaction. The motive behind most
of this advice was more a desire for COM
missions than for the welfare of GUS
toners.
Too many traders had been sitting on
their accounts watching profits roll I'D
without doing anything to liven up the
game or contribute to the payment of Of
fee expenses. Something had to be done
to sweeten UP the game. AS prelimi-
nary move traders had to be Jared into
activity, and the best way to do it was
to shake them out of their stocks. Elk
perience has shown that no ordinary re-
action in prices would have the slightest
influence. 1t was therefore resolved to
take the other end of the proposition and
appeal to the avarice of operators by urg-
ing upon them the desirabilty of grab
bling off big profits and looking at the
money awhile Concentration upon this
idea produced the desired result.
It would appear, however, that great
MI Of
public on the breaks. Waiting orders
were encountered in almost all the i'm
portant issues and the amount of stuff
that was taken turned out to be much
larger than the advisory army had antic-
ipated Whether it will be enough to
check further attempts to force recess
sion is one of the things which only the
record of the next few days can show for
a certainty
The great majority of the bull army
believes there will be no setback of con-
sequence in the general list, and that
the upward march will be under way al
most before we know 1t. Indeed, hun
dreds and thousands of traders who sold
out under compulsion almost are already
getting back In again. They do not feel
comfortable without being long of
stocks.
There is something that appeals In the
philosophy that it will pay to get out of
high-priced stocks and into those of the
medium class Many of the issues that
have enjoyed tremendous advances no
longer pay their board" as the saying
is. Union Pacific. for instance. does not
pay carrying charges in the speculative
account, and the same Is true of New
York Central, Northern Pacific, Great
Northern, st. Paul, Reading, Illinois Cen
trail and others of the same class.
There is an invitation in this situation
for spectators to transfer allegiance to
stocks like Rock Island, Steel, Atchison,
Chesapeake and Ohio, and some of the
industrials which have only experienced
moderate improvement SO far. AS a
broad, general proposition the great bus
mess boom upon which we are entering
will upbuild everything and lift struggling
properties into happy and prosperous SOL
venoy. In this class may be included
Erie, Southern railway and possibly some
of the Gould things which have been SO
handicapped by incompetent management
as to discourage all speculative assist
ance.
One of the features of the market set
back was the heavy and concerted call
ing of loans by banks In the Standard OIL
group. This movement was so open that
attention was attracted to 1t and in many
quarters the theory was helud that the
break was engineered by STANDARD Oil in
terests in order to accumulate stocks.
This theory was strengthened by the &C.
tive assistance of benevolent prophets
like Tom Lawson, who once more filed
advertising columns of the daily press
with gratuttous advice costing tens of
thousands of dollars to "get OUT of stocks
and take to the safety cellars. When
nine out Of ten operators have money
to the good in their accounts scare stuff
of that sort has small effect.
One of the awful things that has hap
pened in Wall street this week was the
break In Union Pacific to 2OS. A year ago
anybody would have been regarded as a
fitting candidate for the insane asylum
who had limited at the possibility of Union
Pacific ever getting high enough to break
to 208. Only the widest dreamers could
conceive of such a thing. Yet here we
have seen within the last few days such
an incident being looked upon as next
door to a calamity, and as a valid reason
for looking for a very serious market
slump. BY the way, there was good
deal OF the buncO in the last upward
movement of the Union Pacific, especially
the preferred. The street was surcharged
with rumors of all sorts affecting Union
Pacific, nearly all of them perdicated on
the theory that there was to be a colossal
melon distribution.
According to the general run of gossip
Mr. Hartman was contemplating the par
ceiling out among his stockholders of
anywhere from s5o,ooo,O0o to $780, 100000 of
the money that had been previously Dor
rowed on stock and bond issues. Just
how this was to be done nobody appeared
to be certain but the one thing which
everybody was quite sure of was that
every human being anyway identified
with the Hartman fortunes was to re-
ceive a shower of gold. No doubt some
body made tidy sum of money on the
manipulated advance which accompanied
the broad circulation of weird gossip con-
corning the Hartman system.
Meantime the status of the Hartman
system (speaking in the purely personal
sense) continues to be matter of live in
terest Those who believe themselves to
be best advised as to Mr.. Harriman's
health are not seriously alarmed but with
one accord they insist that If the financier
expects to prolong his life he must not
attempt to resume his activities In the
old way. AS matter of fact he has his
affairs so arranged that he might prac-
tically retire from the active direction OF
affairs without jeopardzng them in any
way.
The case of Mr.. Hartman illustrates
most completely the fact that the richest
and most powerful of our men are the