The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-02
WALL STREET STILL
 ON ANXIOUS SEAT Railroads Determined to Have
 Higher Rates HOLD UP EXPERIMENTS Big Interests Are Worried Over the Complicated Political Outlook.
 Plan, However, to Hold
 the Market Up
HOLD UP EXPERIMENTS
BY W. G. NICHOLAS

work that the public was frightened away from the market rather than at tracted to it. The laundry work in these pearance of activity as measured by the total transactions at the end of each session. For day or two the action was spread about the room in a manner in- tended to show the public that the specu- lative situation was broadening out. The upstate conventions tended to deaden interest in the stock market and alto gether 1t has been a rather disappointing week. Uncertainty with regard to the | proposition before the Interstate Com merce commission for a raise in freight rates Is still very live factor, or more correctly speaking, a paralyzing factor, The railroads are giving 1t out cold and
 flat that they do not intend to spend any more money than they have to until they are given permission to cinch the shippers for increased income, and that until they are allowed to move I'D their rates nothing more need be expected from | them in the way of new equipment or ders or business with the rail mills They are sitting back and looking as glum and grim as possible. They are feeling very dubious as to the outcome of their de- mands and are at no pains to conceal the fact.
 At first blush they thought .they had made very strong play in getting the railroad labor unions to join with them in their plea for higher rates, but when they come to look over 1t they begin to reel that they may have made a mis- take in trying to influence the court in this fashion. The play looks suspiciously like political duress and the possible im- propriety of that kind of effort Is fore Ing itself upon them. The assumption that the Interstate Commerce commits sloners are politicians and. therefore, amenable to the usual political influences, isn't sitting well on the community The idea some way does not harmonize with the theory that the commission is a judi cfal body and renders its decision in &C., cordance with testimony, facts and busi- ness arguments brought before it in a plain, straightforward, legitimate way. | However, this Is one of the things that will be threshed out and, nasmuch as | the commission Is not expected to take | formal action until after the November | election, the result can wait. Meantime | the commission will resume its regular | sittings the first of the week and one |
 
 be the suspended order for a reduction | in trans-Missouri rates, fact which Is | accountable for the heaviness of several | of the Pacific stocks.
 The great bull argument which Is be- | ing urged as a reason why the stock mar ket should advance is the saving of the crops which are last to mature The whole of the corn crop is now prac- tically out of danger and Wall street | assumes that cotton is in the same happy | situation, although everybody under | stands that a late, open fall may yet increase the production of that staple by at least 100000 bales. Cotton sentiment | as reflected in the daily price fuctua- tions on the exchanges is nervous and | shifty. The price is admittedly high. but that does not prevent an active bull party from stirring things up at lively | rate on the slightest provocation. Some | how or other the big aggregate produc- ton of cereals and cotton does not en- thuse the public stimulate 1t to the | energetic purchase of stocks. Big crops | do very well as a backbone and back | ground, but there Is nothing romantic about farm production-nothing of the fizz and sensational about 1t to give the | initiative. Something Is lacking in the | situation which prevents the speculative impulse from taking possession of the | hundreds of thousands of the individuals
 
 of any great bull campaign.
 Business advces contain very little to | thrill the brain or set the sluggish blood awhirl From every direction comes the | news that the tendency is toward con- traction rather than expansion and prac- tically everybody is holding back where | they can do so. The example set by the | railroads Is being very generally fol- lowed, and there can be no mistake about 1t. The political outlook is disquieting in the extreme, and the spectacular re- appearance upon the stage of Colonel Roosevelt in the familiar role of the big | stick boss, more autocratic and more audacious than ever, does not tend to composure or joy in the business world. | Fortunately, the campaign this fall is go- ing to be a short one, and if 1t should re- | suit in anything like the democratic or | opposition landslide that so many look | for, there will be reasonable certainty | of lively times in the national capital | and in a majority of the state capitals | for at least two years to come. The feel | ing grows also, that several important | railroad systems will be obliged to scale | down dividends within the next year. In- | deed, present quotations seem to have | discounted this development. and people | are taking 1t for granted that the reduc- | tion will come, no matter what else may | happen, particularly on the Pacific roads. |
 
 courage either investment speculative | purchases in the stock market.
 The fact that on every manipulative at- tempt to boost prices of late, the boosters | have been obliged to take on lot of | outside stocks, is discouraging in the | extreme to the pools which have been | feeling out the situation for the banks | and fiscal institutions which have hun | dreds of millions of dollarse loaned out | to favored customers and syndicates on | stock exchange collateral. Spokesmen for | the banks have been earnestly spreading | the glad tidings that they will be able | to provide the capital necessary to move | the crops and keep the wheels of trade | and industry going without being obliged | to. force troublesome liquidation in any quarter. At the same time money Is get | ting dearer all along the line, and while | the nominal rates are being held down, | it Is found impossible for borrowers to make arrangements for considerable | amounts very far ahead. I heard of a | case today of a money broker with s10O,000 of gilt-edged commercial paper being turned down at one of the big banks be- cause he would not submit to a discount of 10 per cent for 90 days, the banker remarking casually that he had no trou- ble in getting for his bank bonus equal to that per cent Incidents of that sort discredit the stories of generally satisfac- tory banking conditions. And then comes the cabled announcement that the Bank of England has raised its discount rate from 8 per cent to per cent Berlin led off with a raise in rates several days ago. Of That avail Is 1t, people are asking, that the banks will be filled up with ch.an y,,onav a fter the first of the year If