The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-10-30
This Liquidation Was Inevita-
BILE and To Be Expected
THE NEW NATIoNALIsM
May Reach the Corporation interests
From Two Dfrecf1ons-Demo-
cratic Success Looked Upon
As Dangerous
by w. G. NICHOLAS

heavy distribution and liquidation of
stocks before the election. This has
| been going on for several days. AS a
consequence the street is again full of
Stocks as the saying is. The floating
supply of stocks has been reinforced by
many hundreds of thousands of shares
That prices have held up so well under
the load of this overburden tends to con-
firm the theory that the public came in
on a generous scale throughout the prog
ress of the advance which began soon aft
er the Maine election.
The public did not respond at once to
the bullish campaign which was organ
lied about six weeks ago, but 1t made
up for lost time after prices had ad-
vanced 5 to 10 points. The latter stages
of the campaign have been characterized
by more than the ordinary flood of weird
stories intended to whip the tagging in
terest of the public and to excite new
enthusiasm on the buying side II that
were possible The scheme seems to
have worked fairly well, else the bull
managers could not have held the situa-
ton SO strongly in hand and worked off
so many stocks.
AS matters now stand the public has inc
big end of the burden of the floating
supply and the banking syndicates with
their speculative associates have the
cash. This transfer of responsibility and
ownership Is pleasing to the banks and
from that quarter many encouraging
words are heard to the effect that IL the
present owners have money enough and
courage enough to stand by their pur-
chases large profits Will result. These
words of hope and comfort do not con-
tain a guarantee of profit, however, and
are lacking in definiteness of announce
ment as TO just when these happy days
are to arrive.
The SPECTATORS who have been buying
stocks on the theory that Colonel Roose-
welt and his new nationalsm are to be
buried under New York landslide, never
to be heard of again, are being rudely
reminded that while their local view may
be accurate they have neglected to take
into account the great west and middle
west, where a democratic or progressive
landslide may be construed as tri-
umph for the ideas held by the apostles
Of advanced politics and that such a re-.
suit would mean further continuance
of agitation for heavier corporation con-
troll. They are reminded that at best
they cannot hope for political tranquility,
although they may be right in assum-
ms that a decided trend in New York
and other eastern states will be a good
thing and may go a long ways to restore
the confidence of business men in their
| ability to control the deeper currents
of politics and legislation
1.-The interests" cannot get over the
habit of trying to carry water on both
| shoulders and of trying to look both
| ways at once. This has been manifested
this week by two significant incidents.
| Up in New Haven at meeting of the
| board of directors of the New York, New
Haven and Hartford railroad. President
Mellen took occasion to say that never
again would his New England railroads
take part in the politics of that Sec
ton or any other section
| Mr.. Mellen is a representative of
considerable group of presidents and
chairmen of railroads and industrial
companies who have been going about
| proclaiming that they were going to give
| the people a chance without attempting
to dictate or control the law-making ma
! chinery or the courts. They were going
| to stand aloof and let the people run
their own business In their own way
That sounds very beautiful to the senses
and tends to soothe savage voter. The
day before this announcement up in
Connecticut meeting Of 100 lawyers,
representing corporations, was brought to
an end in the Waldorf-Astoria in this
city-a meeting which had been In ses-
sion several days and which had been
called for the purpose OF devising ways
and means to beat the law creating a
court of commerce to pass upon and en-
force the decisions and rulings of the
Interstate commerce commission.
According to the programme of these
legal gentlemen the liberty of the law
creating the court of commerce is to be
attacked on all sides and knocked out
If possible. This conference of lawyers
has attracted very little attention con-
sidering it's Importance. 1t was one of
those things that happened to be very
largely ignored on account of the politi-
cal campaigns which are for the moment
engrossing the attention of the reading
public The point is made, however,
that this is pure way for the corpora
tons to start in letting the public have
its own way
The commerce court, 1t will be remem-
bered, Is the result of about 25 years
OF ceaseless work and agitation to make
the Interstate commerce commission eff
fective for the protection of shippers and
the better regulation of railroads In the
matter of freight rates. However, these
little COMMISSIONS will probably work out
In time, and in the working out the cor
porations may regret their persistent at
tempts to block the popular will.
| washington mind readers have been
| bombarding Wall street for several days
with reports of what the interstate COM
merce commissioners are going to decide
| In the pending rate controversy. The
mind readers have 1t all figured out.
| They have even gone so far as to give
the standing, pro and con, of the individ-
ual commissioners and have stated that
| It is so evenly divided in opinion that Mr.
Clark, the labor member. holds the bal
ance of power. The strangest part of this
| curious budget of advance information
| Is that 1t is taken seriously In quarters
where commonsense Is supposed to re-
| side. The utter absurdty of the whole
proposition does not seem to have APP
| pealed to great many people who can
| usually be depended upon to pay slight
| attention to that sort of drivel.
To read the stuff that has been pour
ing into Wall street one would imagine
that the commissioners held daily ses-
sions at Shoomakers and took all the
newspaper correspondents at the capital
into their full confidence as to what de-
cision would be handed down or rulings
made between now and the frst OF Feb
| ruary next.
The quarterly report of the Steel cor
poratjou was about an expected. 1t