The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-10


ness in the stock market continues, so
that the record of the current month
bids fair to equal that Of March, when
the total amount Of business transacted
was smaller than in any one month
to be contracting.
In Wall street the delay over the SD
preme Court decisions in the antitrust
cases is still assigned as the substantial
cause of the present condition Of affairs,
and it seems just to say that this feeling
is by no means confined to SPECTATORS
Disgust and indignation exist in the
minds of bankers and business men of
every degree over the fact that in these
great United States. incomparably the
most progressive and enterprising coun-
try in the world, a blight has been
thrown upon the natural development
of trade and commerce for five years
back, while the lawyers have split hairs
over the question whether there Is or Is
not law upon the statute books OF the
land which prevents business operations
here from being conducted in the same
manner that they are in every other
civilized nation. In every other country
which has been made rich and powerful
by the activities of its merchants and
manufacturers it was long since dfscov-
cred that undue competition led to dis
sipation of effort and wastage Of capital
Special Session q Fnctor.
No doubt a too strong adverse erect
upon business and financial sentiment
has been exercised by apprehension as
to the character of the tariff revision
programme that will be adopted by the
Democrats of the House Of Representa-
| tives at the extra session of Congress
OF course, nothing like a general over
hauling Of the tariff can be INDUCED in
| this year, because the President Of the
| United States would not sign a measure
of this kind. Neither could such a bill
pass the Senate The prevailing suppo-
sition in the best quarters seems to be
that the Democrats in the House viii
pass bill heavily reducing wool and
cotton tariffs, and also reducing the
duties on several necessaries Of life,
such as, perhaps, tea and meats; and
yet nobody knows just exactly what will
| be done, and the depression which is
| already felt in the textile and many
| lines OF trade for other reasons is inten-
sified by the tariff agitation that has
been started Naturally. discussion Of
| this general sort and the profound in
ertia of the stock market has revived a
| good deal OF the speculative "bearish-
| ness that was so prominently displayed
| last year. Not few commission houses
| are, in their weekly letters to their Gus
TONERS, protesting themselves convinced
that security prices must go good deal
| lower before any notable degree OF pub
| lie buying will be attracted. and the con-
| tention is supported by many advocates
| that there is something the matter with
| the general financial situation besides
| that of tariff agitation and the fear Of
| sCch a construction of the antitrust
! law by the Supreme Court as must
| either upset business altogether or COM
pei an amendment of the law by Con-
gress.
Bottom Not Yet Reached
| In particular there are those who as
sert that general liquidation in the coun-
Try is still incomplete, that debts have
not been sufficiently paid on. that the
| cost of production OF materials and mer-
chandise has not been sufficiently reduc-
ed, that bank reserves are not yet high
enough, and that in general the country
is not yet down to the condition of rela-
tive hard pam on which It ought to
rest in order to sustain any forward
movement Of Importance in business and
| finance
| The great fundamental factors Of the
situation remain constant: A world
wide plethora of money which Is max
ing all financing arrangement easy where
the propositions concerned are such as
| would ordinarily be entertained by con-
servatfve business men: the accumula-
| ton of a foreign trade balance IN our
favor that has been surpassed in only
a few years before in our national his
tory; a general liquidation through the
! country that if it has not yet fully run
| its course has at least gone so far as to
accomplish a great reduction IN COM
modify and all other prices, and to cheap
| en- materially the cost of living and to
increase sales of merchandise abroad; an
| improving outlook for the seasons crops
which has led to the general expectation
| that the governments April agricultural
report to be published to-day will in the
case of winter wheat indicate a crop
largely in excess of that harvested last
year: small stocks of merchandise of