White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1911-10-08
THE DAWN Of
BETTER DAYS
FINANCIAL WRITER BLAMES
GOVERNMENT FOR CONDITIONS
BUT THINKS DEFINING SHER-
MAN LAW IS CLEARING WAY.

IL cdfiul uCCltuC III pa iSCo
the panic year 1907 marked the first
as well as the most violent effect on
the stock market of the effort to cor
rect the evils of concentrated wealth
uesd in a method contrary to public
policy and the welfare of the people.
The motives of the men whom Col
onel Roosevelt called rich malefac-
tors need not enter into a stock
market analysis, the fact was that
concentrated wealth had secured a
grip on the Industries of the country,
II not the legislation, which the think
ing element knew was dangerous and
which has inflamed public sentiment
until our legislators and public Of
ficials have been forced to put into
effect the remedies at hand whether
as wise as they could be or not. 1t
was unfortunate that the first bolt
out of a clear sky found the bank
ing as we'll as the speculative com
munity u%nprepared so that the panic
that followed was inevitable.
The awful effects of the panic stay
ed the hand of the government for a
while and during the later part of
1908 and through 1909 we had a
sharp rebound in stock market prices
and a recovery in general business.
There is little doubt however that the
large financial interests seized the OPP
portunity to distribute securities and
events since have indicated that the
bulk of the buying then was by in
vestors rather than by spectators.
The prices reached in 1909 were in
many cases the highest ever made.
This was true of Union Pacific at
219, Southern Pacific at 1875, Uni
ted States Steel at 94M, and Read
ing at 173$. There were others
such as Beet Sugar, but prices for
than in 1909 hardly offer a good
comparison with previous years, ow-
ing to the comparatively short time
the companies had been in existence.
The force of 1909 advance is hard
to believe considering the conditions
that had preceded 1t, and could only
have been accomplished through a,
tremendous investment demanded
such as we had.
During the early part of 1910 and
all through the year there was persis-
tent liquidation and a strange indif-
erence on the part of both the
speculative and investing public and
the extra session of congress develop
ed this condition to even a greater
degree. Instead of recovering fol-
the extra session of congress
We have had a continuance of liqui-
dation which reached the proportions
of a panic this week. The tariff agi-
tation and the coming presidential
election have been given little
thought, for the course of the ad-
ministration has focused attention
on the Sherman Antitrust law and
the effects of its enforcement on the
larger industrial corporations. In
other words, we are back to where we
we're in 1907 SO far as the ruling fac
tor in the market is concerned. with
out the panic that resulted then from
an inflated condition. We have
demonstrated 10 that banking and
commercial conditions are thoroughly
sound and hat the speculative pub
lie, at least, is little concerned with
the stock market. These conditions
account for the fact that prices have
not returned to the 1907 low level
except in a few instances.
We had the first effects of the
movement against the trusts in 1907
and 1t is a fair question II We are moi
getting the final unfavorable effects
at the present time. In 1907 the
Sherman Law was little understood
and the Standard Oil and Tobacco
cases were yet to be tried. Now we
have had decisions by the supreme
court defining the law which ought
to enable the counsel for corporations
to steer them clear of it. The SUI
preme court DECISIONS are being put
to a practical test in the r~eorganiza-
ton of those two companies. The
Standard Oil situation is simple, but
the American Tobacco conditions
cover the ground thoroughly and, II
a plan can be worked out for that
corporation it will serve as a model
for others. There is ground for be-
living that such will be the case, in
which event we should find that we