Semi-weekly herald., 1910-12-05
!. ). HILL As AN ALARMIsr.


railway talks and votes Democratic,
and then when the Democrats win he
prophesies disaster for the country.
There will have to be shutting down
down OF mines in 1911" he says, be
cause iron and coal and other miner
ais that 20 into the production OF
commercial articles will not be in de
mand. The same might be said OF
lumber and other forms OF activity.
AS result Of all this there will be
many thousands of people out of en-
ployment. Enterprise in all lines
will come to standstill. There will
be no progress" Mr.. Hill does not, In
actual words attribute this imagined
dark outlook to the recent Democratic
victory. 1t is safe to say, however,
that II the Republicans had carried
the country his tune would be pitched
in a little different key. Though q
lifelong and bigoted Democrat, he has
no faith In Democratic sanity courage
or sincerity. He talked in this strain
during the Bryan-Taft campaign OF
1908, when he believed that Bryan
would sweep the country, but after
the Republicans won the presidency
and congress he ceased his croaking
for a time, because he knew nobody
would pay any attention to them. The
Democratic victory of 1910, however,
has aroused his fears, and has also
obtained an audience for him.
Wall street. which sometimes is
easily stampeded, was stampeded yes
terday by Hills outgiving Steel and
Union Pacifif declined 3 IA pointsl
Louisville and Nashville points, and
Reading 1-S points and Lehigh Val
ley points. Practically the whole ac-
tive list of shares went down, as COM
pared with Saturdays closing prices.
Yet in the business situation nothing
had been changed between Saturday
and Monday, Hill maunderings were
the cause of the decline. Wall street
forgets that Hill is old, as we'll as an
gular. that he is as vain as Andrew
eoi ht6iC hDoht DttiiS Lib hdihC dlo
bis picture in print, and that he talks
as much as Tom Lawson did in the old
days when Lawson was able to get
anybody to listen to him. Hills own
shares did not fall off yesterday quite
as much as did some of the others.
Notwithstanding the fact that he said
his roads were making no extensions
and would give very few orders for
new equipments during 1911. This
was probably because the investors
who stand closest to Hill through
ownership of the stocks in his rail-
ways have listened to Hills lamenta-
tions so often since the election that
they refuse to accept any new scares
which may be handed out to them
from that quarter. Ever since Nov
ember 8 Wall street has been easy
for the alarmists. By rather anus.
ing hallucination Wall street used its
Influence against the Republicans in
the recent campaign, in the belief that
Democratic victory would give a
stimulus to enterprise and send stocks
up. The result was the opposite of
this forecast Enterprise was checked
and stocks went down. Stocks always
go down when the Democrats win any
national victory, A Democratic tri-
umph never started an idle wheel
or gave employment to single
worker who was idle previously. AL
ways and everywhere a Democratic
victory adds to the number OF idle
workers. All this ought to have been
known to the New York Stock Ex-
| change.
Yet the Democratic victory of 1910
| is not likely to have consequences
quite SO calamitous as this Bourbon
Democrat at st. Paul imagines. The
Democrats have gained control Of only
one branch of congress, and they will
not start operations there until lit
| tie over twelve months from now. The
senate and the presidency will remain
In Republican hands until at least two
years and three months hence. Ant
there is strong probability that the
wave of lunacy which gave the Demo
Gratis their recent victory will have
subsided long before 1912 arrives. ant
that the Republicans will regain com
plete power in the government in tina
year The basic elements in the sit
uation are sound There has been n,
overproduction since 1907 in any com
rodity. In no staple products are th
quantities on hand abnormally large
Crops are better than ever before. Th
farmers are prosperous. The balanc
OF trade in our foreign transactions
which was recently down near tn
vanishing point. is once more on tn
increase. The deficit in the treasur
at Washington is shrinking. The pres
ident has promised to push his ecor
omy programme with new vigor l.
, the session OF congress this winter
He accomplished something in tina
| line in the recent session, and he e,
poets to be still more successful now
, If the men who are potent on the bi
, bourse in New York would take
calm survey of the country, and ais