The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-18
NEW ERA FOR
 UNITED STATES  To Be Led by Government Is Opinion of Wall Street AN ECONOMY CAMPAIGN Railroads Threaten to Apply Pruning Knife RuthIessly Unless They
 Are Allowed to Advance
 Freight Rates
AN ECONOMY CAMPAIGN
By PRESTON c. ADAMS

According to the wise men of the street, the railroads and great indus l trial corporations are to take the lead in the campaign of economy. Methods are to be improved, purchases of supplies are to be restricted and the working forces are to be reduced.
 | It was stated that the United States Steel Corporation was to lay off 2000o to 25,0O0 men, but this was promptly denied by Chairman Ebert n. Gary, who em- phatically declred he saw no reason whatever to anticipate any further re- duction in the working forces of the steel corporation.
 It is declared the railroads have not only been unable of late to raise capital for extensions, but they claim that the immediate future holds no inducement to incur avoidable expenditures, inasmuch as trade is slackening and the federal authorities are showing no disposition to re-establish confidence and stimulate prosperity. December and January, 1t Is declared, will bring announcement after announcement that men have been thrown out of employment first by the railroads and later by the multifarious concerns dependent for business mainly upon transportation companies.
 Accepting the authoritative statement that retrenchment is to be the slogan of the railroads during ensuing months, no elaborate research is necessary to dis cover the reasons therefor; 1t is sufficient to glance at the statements of earnings for October now being published. Brief ly. the remarkable expansion in gross revenue which has been enjoyed since the recovery from the 1907 demoraliza- tion has apparently reached it's apex, while the expense of conducting opera lions has expanded inordinately, so that the net results are extremely unsatisfac- tory. A lucid table will best convey clear idea of the position the railroads have drifted, or been forced into.
 Without insinuating that railroad man. agers are resorting to dubious steps to exaggerate the plight in which they now find themselves, 1t may be well to reflect, especially in considering the stock market outlook that, inasmuch as the Interstate Commerce Commission is still deliberat- ing upon the advisability of granting ad- vances in freight charges, the railroads may not strive to carry out their policy of retrenchment in kid-glove fashion, but may apply the pruning knife ruth lessly Banking interests identified with the principal transportation systems are emphasizing the urgent necessity for protecting bondholders and stockholders as a safeguard against a destruction of credit; In other words, the old policy Of cutting dividends will be avoided wher- pr0noraiaG afforfqH rather by stopping all new building and improvements.
 During recent years the production of sugar in the Philippines has ranged from 175,000 tons to 100000 tons. Approx imately 5000 tons of this is consumed in the islands. China takes about two thirds of the total exports; part of 1t gees to> a number of reflneries located near Hongkong, and the other half to China proper, where it is used in the raw state. The United States generally takes anywhere from one-sixteenth to one-third.
 When the sugar industry was at It's height there were nearly 300,00 acres un- der cultivation, but at the present time only about 170,000 acres are worked. Beet sugar is turned out by the mills in refined form, but most of the cane sugar produced is of the heavy molasses vari- ety.
 The number of stockholders in Amers- can corporations has increased during the last F months. This statement Is based upon official returns just collected and now being compiled for publication. It was shown last December that 110 cor porations had e26,9S4 stockholders. Fifty four railroads, with a capital of $4,157,- GOO, 600, had on their lists 8,160 stock holders, while 56 industrial enterprises, having a capital of s3,143, ,000.00O reported 33S, ,824. This years returns have not yet been totaled and analysed, but 1t can be said that there has been an increase In both classes of stockholders This fact does not harmonize with the popular Wall street view that during 1910 stocks have tended to find at least a temporary lodgment In what is called "a few strong hands," Is it that the purchasing of small blocks of stock by investors scat tered throughout the country has been on a larger scale than the character of the trading on the New York stock ex- change has suggested?
 New security issued by railroad, indus trial, and other interpretations in the United States totalled SILL 032, 900 during NOVemDeT, all increase or S3f, bbl, ,O00 over | November, 1909. Of the total the rail- | roads contributed $58,797,000, an increase I Of $1,S32,000, while the output by other enterprises reached $52, ,235, GOO, an expan- | sion of no less than s35,S35000.
 l England has no divine right to the cot ton trade; the impression has been so
 general that English spinners believed that 1t had that c. W. Macara felt called | upon to make this announcement at the
 meeting of the International Cotton Com
 mittee at London the other day. Most l of the talk at this meeting was of ex-
 tending the cotton producing area of the
 world, and the English members were
 very confident in expressing the opinion
 that the United States cannot hold it's
 prestige as the great cotton producer for | ever.
 In explaining the fact that England no longer dominates the world in the cotton goods market MT. Macara said that just
 now a great deal was heard about the
 relative position of England in the cot ton trade today and S5 years ago.
 He would like to point out, he said, that 35 years ago the cotton crop of the
 world was only about 100000 bales.
 while now 1t averaged about 100000
 bales. It was impossible, MT. Macara
 thought, for nation of 44,000, GOO people
 to cope with that tremendous increase or
 raw material. and the demand for cotton
 goods from the rapidly increasing pop- I ulation of the world; and then he said
 that England had no divine right to the
 cotton trade any more than Amarica