The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-03
IS WAITING ON DEVELOPMENTS Little Change Either Way
 During Past Week EYE ON WASHINGTON Report That Taft's Message Is to Deal With Trusts Alone Is
 Variously Interpreted by
 Big Interests
EYE ON WASHINGTON
Rx w. c. NICHOLAS

By w. G. NICHOLAS
 New York. December 2.-(Special.) .)-The stock market is nervously marking time and the professional traders are playing lively music Price fluctuations are of generous proportions, although no decisive tendency has developed in either direc- ton. The big people are waiting for Congress to formulate its programme and for the President to put in record shape his views and recommendations. This may take two or three weeks, or even longer, but in the meantime it will be possible for the public and for the fnan- ciers to get line on what is to be ex- pected at the seat of political unrest.
 The week has not been without its. in Seresting features. There have been al- ternGte periods of depression and of hope
 Good grounds exist for improved senti- ment but nothing has really occurred to justify riotous activity on the bull side of the market. General trade conditions are looking little better according to the murden of reports coming in from the interior, but not enough so to foreshadow an immediate wholesale expansion of either industrial or commercial interests. Eastern delegates to the National Bank CTS convention at New Orleans seem to be very much of the same mind as to cur rent business conditions. They are hope ful but not exuberant. They find little to warrant the widespread feeling of dis couragement which has been shadow on the situation for months and find by in-
 terchange of views that the country at large is doing about the normal volume of trade but is content with smaller prof It's than usual. Railroad earnings, while not uniformly better than last year, are
 generally satisfactory and register in- creases In net, if not always In gross reve- nues.
 Judge Gary's testimony before the Sen ate committee on Wednesday sent cold chill down the spine of the bull specula- tors The judges candor rather took his Wall street audience off it's feet, especial ly the admission that many steel manu- lecturers are selling below cost, and that if present conditions are continued some of them will become bankrupt This admission was not relished and was regarded by many as being mprudent, al- though it's accuracy was not denied by nybody familiar with the steel trade sit uation. Still. it seemed a little raw to have the confession come from man who is regarded as the present leading author ity in the steel industry. Judge Gary has a way of saying things that stir up the animals. His outspoken stand for government regulation of corporations. while not new for him, was put with even more than his usual direcness and was full of meat.
 The apparently authentic advance infor- mat ton from Washington that President Taft would confine his first message to Congress next week to- a discussion of the trust question and to giving req sons for the enactment of a law authoriz- ing national interpretations was received in the street with varying comment and emotions That the President should con- slider these issues Of such paramount im- portance that everything else political and material be subordinated thereto put Wall street in the center of the stage and more or less on the defensive. The intima- | tion that MT. Taft will advise some modi- | fications of the Sherman law that will | simplify it's enforcement gave great sat | isfact ction except In certain circles where | the feeling has grown up that nothing will save the country short of absolute repeal of that statute. This sentiment prevails | in greater force than at any time since the supreme court decisions in the Stand | ard oil and Tobacco cases. The reported | action of governors of western states at l their Chicago conference favoring the | same action by Congress Is being accepted | as evidenve that the same sort of feel | ing dominates throughout the west, where | strongest opposition to the Sherman law | repeal or amendment has heretofore | sprung. Wall street is beginning to en- | certain the notion that there may be hope after all for a change in the law that will | conform to it's demands, even though it | be impossible to obtain full repeal of | the enactment. In this respect there has been quite a change in the accepted Wall | street theories of few weeks ago, when l everything was confessedly lost and ruin | stared the nation in the face. According | to the Wall street angle there is now hope | that the administration and Congress may | awaken to the need of changing the laws | to better fit business needs and be in closer sympathy and accord with the lat | est kinks and frils of down to date meth | ods of handling large business.
 Leaders of high finance and the cap- tains of industry are far from being of one mind as to the desrability of a na- | tional incorporation law. If they can | have just the kind of law that would | meet requirements as they see them, the l big interests of Wall street might not be | averse to governmental authorization and | control of big business but they are by no means sure that the administration and Congress will be able to see things through the glasses employed in the head | quarters of the money kings. That is go- | ing to be an issue of very great inn | portance to Wall street and one upon | which there will eventually be substantial | agreement. In theory, it will be very nice | for big business to be relieved from the | harassments of state laws but if the relier | can only come at the expense of corpora ton inability to manage Its own affairs | then things will be different. Wall street | is going to have plenty to do from now on | trying to keep the statesmen within linn it's.
 One of the interesting stories af1oat in the street this week Is one to the effect that the interests which group about James J. Hill have obtained control of the St Paul railroad system and that it will be operated hereafter under Hill supervision if not his actual management. St. Paul has cut heavily into the earnings of Great Northern and Northern Pacific and the sharp rivalry that has existed has reduced net revenues all around. St. Pau has been thorn in the flesh of MT. Fill for many years, and especially during tn last two years. He never found way however to get rid of the annoyance, foi the reason that the destinies of St. Pau
 were lodged with MT. William Rockefelle, and his assicates-a group dangerous fo' I any party of f1nanciers, however strong, te engage in brutal struggle for supremacy
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