The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-13
UNDECIDED ABOUT
 ELECTION EFFECT
Wall Street Trying to Analyze
 Situation
RAILROADS STILL OUT
Not Expected to Get Into Markets Until Something Definite Is Known About Interstate Commerce
 Commission's Attitude
BY W. G. NICHOLAS

BY W. G. NICHOLAS
 New York. November 12.-(Special)
 We'll, the election has gone Into his tory and the spectators appear to be about as much at sea as to conse- quences as they were before the bal lotfng began. At first blush 1t looked as though the market might go right up through the ceiling in grand ju
 oilee celebration over the downfall of Rooseveltism- That was the view Of the situation that was taken in Lon don. which opens up for business two or three hours ahead of us. Later on there came the sobering second thought that while Rooseveltism might have been checked, even checkmated, there was the offsetting circumstance of new Congress oyerwh elmingly commit ted to tariff revision and to a general unveiling of the iniquities of the party in power for the past or 10 years. The new regime Is in fact committed to a programme of all kinds of dis turbance and trouble. and although it will not come into power for more than year there is the a1ways overAanglns feeling that 1t is going to wield the aX and turn on the light at the very earliest opportunity An ingrowing consciousness of the actual situation caused a sort of a semi-panic during the afternoon of the day following the election. Prices of most of the active stocks broke from 3 to S1s points and the lightwaisted traders who had been ngurfng on a great boom that was to be inspired by the downfall of rad icalism in politics were scared to death. stocks came on the market in flood and mass of stop-loss orders were caught. Overnight reflection gave the market a better tone on Thursday and the big people who have been behind the bull campaign of the last six weeks gave substantial support to values, but not enough to prevent further loss or F to 21k points.
 Apparently the strong friends of the market are not going to let 1t go to pieces just because the democrats and heir allies In Congress and through out the country are going to do some thing disturbing q year or two hence. There is no danger of a collapse in values just because a majority of the voters find 1t necessary to administer harsh discipline to all unruly and fresh" leader addicted to the habit of dreaming impossible things. Busi- ness will continue much as usual on 235,000 miles of railroad which earned last year s2,600 000, 900 and gave em- ployment to 1,800,000 men. Likewise the industrials will keep open doors and open shutters although possibly they might not be doing quite as much as in good times. The 100,000,000 peo- pie of the United States will continue to exist. A majority of them will go right along eating three meals day and sleep under roofs on mattresses.
 In sober earnest there is more prob ability of a prolongation of business con struction than there Is of expansion and immediate return of full-blown prosper fty The steel and iron trade, which people are in the habit of mentioning as the best barometer of industrial condl- tons, has fewer orders on its books than at any time since it's organization nine years ago. In that time its capacity has more than doubled. If there is anything encouraging in this exhibit students of the situation would be very glad to have 1t explained. What is true in regard to the iron and steel trade Is true also with many other manufacturing departments There are exceptions, of course, and real encouragement can be found in electrical manufacturing, in woolen and cotton goods, in the boot and shoe trade and In the concerns that are producing staple articles of day-by-day consumption.
 Railroads are spending no more money than they have to and they are not liable to change this policy of economy until they know more than they do now about what the interstate commerce commission is going to do in the matter of freight rates. There Is all kind of talk about the enormous flood of orders for new rails that will be poured into the offices of the | big iron and steel companies before the end of the year by the Pennsylvania, | New York Central. New Haven and other roads which are supposed to be more or less under the influence of the J. P. Morgan banking establishment. | Such reports must be received with due allowance for the desires of the big spec ulative contingent which lives, breathes and has Its being under the wings of the | Morgan outfit It Is In that quarter that people have been Joking for inspiration for the last few weeks. The 15 or 25 point bull campaign in the stock market has, according to the common Wall street un- derstanding, been engineered from that | locality. There is curiosity to know whether or not this speculative crowd | has been able to unload on the advance or whether 1t really wanted to unload. It sometimes happens that gambling