The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-20

lieve it to be of greater importance than anything else at this juncture and that right there Is to be found chief respon- sibility for the setback which is com plained of in the business world. More than the talk of political harrassment and of deeper portent is the growing con sciousness of the vital danger of the great tyranny which has been formed by a small group of ambitious financiers.
 Less is heard of the forthcoming de- cislons of the supreme court in the To- bacco and Standard oil cases. That is be- cause there is no certainty that either opinion will be handed down before next October. Argument in the Standard Oil case will be heard next month and it is barely possible that the Tobacco decision may be reneder before the May adjourn ment, although as both cases have strik- ing points of similarity they may both come down together. In that event next fall will be as early as they can be looked for The scare talk indulged in over these two cases did iusty service as clubs to beat down the stock market. It is now realized that the scare thrown into the market on that account was prema- ture and those who were most active in the campaign hereabouts are turning quiet. They feel that by drawing back in their shells and letting people forget about the cases as much as possible they can engineer. another scare later on when another break in prices Is needed.
 The sharp advance in Reading was one of the features of the week. From the insiue range of ten days ago the stock was marked up nearly ten points. making a rise of almost points in one day. The explanation of the sudden squirt in Read ing Is found in the fact that the stock was oversold. The floating supply of this speciality is small and the short sellers had trouble in borrowing the certificates to fill contracts. Advantage was taken of this condition to run a little squeeze The stock almost cornered itself, as the saying is. very little impetus was needed to start the shorts bidding against themselves.
 Steel corporation earnings for the cur rent quarter, January. February and March are expected to be between s43- 0OOO00 and s45, ,000,000. There Is some let down in the volume of activity in iron and steel and scaling in prices of quite a variety of products.
 The aggregate of business is neverthe- less very large and in the main may be described as satisfactory. It Is much better than much of the talk heard would lead one to expect. The big corporation has orders booked for six months ahead and the same Is true of most of the in dependent companies.
 The money market conditions are dis tinctly In favor of the borrowers. Six months money can be borrowed in quan- titles at per cent and year arrange ments can be made on a basis of Al per cent This situation cannot be regarded as entirely a good sign from business standpoint It would seem to argue prevalent belief in banking circles that this is not going to be a boom year.
 As promised. the stock exchange au- thorities made a scapegoat of H. s. Has kius. the floor member of the firm that organized the pool in Hooking Coal and Iron In the state Of popular 1eehng against the stock exchange for it's chron- ic indifference to the interests of the pub lie 1t was necessary for the governing body to make a sacrifice of somebody and Mir. Haskins happened to be the most available man to nail to the cross. Against his personal character not word has been said or can be said, but ne happened to get in front of the gun when 1t went on.