Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-10
the best evidence of the urgent need {
such action.
Discount of Reduction.

Discount OF HeQuct1On.
If the directors refuse to make this cut
the public will have right to regard
the failure to perform a manifest duty
as evidence of weakness and lack Of con-
servatism. The market is quite as likely
to take another plunge on dividend
maintenance as on a sharp cut; even
more SO, for a reduction has been dis
counted. New Haven is very largely
owned in New England. 1t is the pet of
the down casters, and about l20O0 of
them have their money invested In its
shares. They have seen the stock de-
cline in price from 300 to 13o under the
management of Mr.. Mellen and his as
sociate. Mr.. Tim Byrne. and its capital
stock increased in volume to Sill, Coo,oJo
more than 100 per cent
The system has spread cut under the
-Byrne regime until 1t blankets the
whole of New England. 1t has taken
over an intricate network of trolley lines.
added to its steamship assets and spent
vast sums of money in New York termi-
mails. 1t must spend tens and scores of
millions more before ii can complete its
terminal plans in this city. Both Mr..
Mellen and Mr. Byrne are graduates from
the James J. Hill school for the education
of railroad men. They were too strong
for the west and Mr.. Hill let his friends,
J. p. Morgan. William Rockefeller and
the rest of the New Haven crowd have
Haven stockholders would like to sell
them back to Mr.. Hill at cost.
Hills Valuable Secret.
People wonder how Mr.. Hill is able to
go on building up and extending his sys-
tenn throughout the wilderness of the
northwest and keep paying high dividends
more than that. earning the dividends.
The secret lies in the fact that Mr.. Hill
thinks and works twenty-four hours
day, and is a veritabe slave driver in
making others work who are connected
with the organization. strong feature
of his life campaign In the northwest is
to fill his territory with people. He has
spent tens of millions of dollars colonizing
the country through which his railroads
run with the best labor of Europe. His
colonization schemes are responsible for
a large percentage of the immigration
from northern Europe during the last
twenty-five years.
He never lets up. One of his latest
ideas has been to add moving picture
shows to his foreign colonization agencies.
These motion exhibits show the growth
of crops in the northwest. from the bare
prairie to the mouths of consumers. 1t
is a fascinating idea and Mr. Hill has
capitalized it for all it is worth in his
own particular baiiwick. This moving
picture invention, by the way. is being
applied to many kinds of advertising, and
it promises to expand without limit.
Those who were lucky enough to get in
on some of. the basic patents in connec-
ton with the industry have already piled
up great fortunes-among them Eastman,
the Rochester kodak man: Thomas Edi-
son, j. J. Kennedy and many others, who
as yet are comparatively unknown. In
few years they will rank with the To-
bacco trust and Standard Oil magnates.
The Pacific Mail steamboat line, own
ed by the Southern Pacific railroad, is
going to have a rival in the Atlantic
and Pacific line. a fifteen million
dollar company has been formed to
construct and operate fleet of fifteen
steamers to ply between our eastern
ports and the Pacific and orient. The
Panama canal will be the water con-
nection between the oceans. Prepa-
rations are also being made to ship
Virginia coal in immense quantities
through the canal to supply the de-
mands of the Pacific coast states San
Francisco will be able to buy her coal
within 81 a ton of New York price, it
is claimed. Interests identified with
the Chesapeake and Ohio, Norfolk and
Western, Clinchville and Carolina and
perhaps one other road are planning
to finance this maritime expansion.
overproduction of Gold.
An English lecturer on economies
there lately by discovering that the
overproduction of gold is responsible
for hard times and much of the specu-
lative uncertainty now witnessed. The
idea seems to strike great many
people in Great Britain as novelty.
although the scheme has been discussed
on this side of the water SO generally
that the public has become fairly well
educated to knowledge of the facts
and their bearing on business affairs
The gold imitation is proceeding at the
rate of approximately $500. 900, 900
year, and there is no immediate pros
pect Of material let-up.
The increase in interest rates is one
way in which this imitation expresses
itself. The decline of twenty points in
British conaols within the last six years
is probably the best register that we
have of the decreasing purchasing
power of the dollar. They talk about
the necessity Of iquidating labor be-
find it IS ironed out AS matter of
fact labor has been more nearly sta
tionary than any other important com
modify. considering the reduced pur-
chasing power Of the dollar, labor is
poorly paid. a dollar buys 40 to so
per cent less than ii did ten years ago.
Wall street is advised by its crop ex-
perts that So per cent Of the corn crop
is beyond danger of damage by frost.
Ten days more Will place the entire
crop in a position of safety.
The foreign departments OF our great
industrial organizations are working
upon the old worlds market through