The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-07-31

I the New York stock exchange, but nothing comparable with the total shrinkage in the market prices of stocks.
 Unless other big game may be lurking about in the shadows wounded and dis abed to be added to the bag of the banking combinations, the market situa- ton should mend rapidly.
 Those who have been sorrowing be- cause of lack of bull leadership in the stock market may now discover that a recovery In prices Is possible without the personal management of any one great leader It is recalled that through the long decline which has been going on for nine months or more no great bear leader came to the front. There has probably never been such a break in the stock market where so little has been l heard of individual winnings. The mar ket seemed to go down at its own weight.
 To all surface intents the market was a gravity proposition. It is clear, how ever, that lurking in the background was formidable, and you might say in- vincible array of rich men. influential in railroad and industrial management as well as in bank control who were nursing grouch and who were unwill- ing to see matters improved until the country had been given an object les son. They spell object lesson with the letters ''r-u-i-n,' and 1t has been duly administered Possibly the recoil may eventually hurt the man behind the guns as bad as 1t has the general public and especially tine speculative contin- gent. ~ T,
 The copper situation is in better shape than it has been for year. full fedged "gentlemen's agreement for the curtailment of production is now in force with J. P. Morgan and his big stick ready behind the curtain to see that the terms of the agreement are carried out. Very few of the big producers are strong enough to finance their own affairs inde- pendent of the good will of the banking combinations of which Mir. Morgan is influential almost to a point of despot- ism.
 These combinations have the power of discipline and punish. fact which has been demonstrated many times during the past two or three years and people of means are becoming daily more re- luctant to provoke antagonisms in that quarter. Undesirable citizens who fly the flag of independence or insurgency very quickly find they are unable to make headway. They do not get anywhere. Banks where they have been accustomed to borrow money or secure credit sud- denly turned cold. They would like. Of course to oblige old friends, but they are unfortunately loaned up to the limit and must curtail instead of expand.
 The understanding between leading banks and bankers in the big fiscal cen ters is one of those things you can't put your hands on. although 1t Is there as a living force as impenetrable as a gran ite wall, although elusive to inquiry or touch. This is tho one thing which is likely to compel the enforcement of the deal for the cutting down of copper pro- duction until the time arrives for the completion of the titanic merger which Is now under way
 This merger may be put through dur ing the autumn months or it may be de- ferred until the supreme court acts on the Standard Oils and Tobacco trust cases, which are felt to have a vital bearing on future trust organizations. There may be a small, sized boom in copper shares on the stock markets here, in Boston, and other cities, but the really important people Identified with the industry will be satisfied to see their securities remain about the cur rent level. Most of them have been ar tihcially high and any attempt to run | is too great to try.
 l The market action which followed the climax of house-cleaning described in the foregoing was a verttable rout of the bears. The active stocks jumped to 8 points in two or three days, almost with out reaction. At the bottom there was