The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-02

the Interstate Commerce Commission that railroads sometimes sell stock at par to their stockholders when the outstanding shares are quoted at a higher price in the open market Surely it Is rather late in the day to suddenly evince horror over | such an arrangement seeing that 1t has been In operation, not secretly. but quite open. almost since the day railroad stocks began to be worth more than their face
 value Perhaps Wall street Is so wicked
 place In the conception of certain in- vestigators that they have all their lives shrunk from contaminating their minds by learning the slightest thing about it's business This innocence might be com mendable in monk. but 1t does not ex- actly fit an aspiring inauisitor into finah- cial affairs to perform his task with skill or even common sense. It Is not here contended that stockholders have never been treated extremely generous in the distribution of subscription rights, but 1t Is asserted that every important piece of financing of this kind has been reported fully sooner or later by the financial press and is a matter of permanent rec ord Ii Is A. trifie absurd, therefore, for Investigators to pin feathers in their cap when they bring out facts known to the yeriest tyro in financial affairs.
 The cotton bill of lading situation will be cleared up satisfactorily before the ex- port movement begins In real earnest. At least, this Is the opinion among those enlisted here.
 If is pretty well settled that the for eisners will not get the guarantee they ask for, as the weight of opinion or this side Is that validation offers all the need ed security.
 There are several aspects of this ques- ton that operate against the foreign bankers In the first place some of the oldest private banking firms on the other side. which have always done large cotton business, are opposed to the ac- ton of the majority in insisting upon a guaranteed bill of lading These bankers have notified correspondents on this side that they are willing to do. business on the principle of validation
 Then English and continental spinners must have our cotton, and that. too, promptly, as their stocks on hand are usually low and as the improvement in trade abroad, especially in Great Britain and Germany, has been most pronounced in the cotton goods line. Furthermore, the value of cotton exports this year is likely to rise above $500. 100000 and may
 
 The commission on this enormous amount, whatever it may be. is a very important matter to the English and con- tinental bankers and they are not likely to let these commissions slip away from them and be secured more largely than ever before by the bankers on this side. As result of the developments In the railroad rate controversy at the hearings in New York and Chicago it Is asserted
 that much larger scope will be given
 to the pending rate matter by the Inter-
 state Commerce Commission than was originally intended The members of the
 commission have been gradually aban-
 doning that attitude of comparative indif-
 ference which was in a measure charac-
 teristic of them at the outset and are
 making up their minds that they must
 recognize the duty of going into the rate
 question with great thoroughness apropos
 of pending complaints