The Washington herald., 1911-11-05
FINANCE And REALTY


There was little trading at the meet
ing of the local stock exchange yester-
day afternoon Demand was light and
little interest was displayed. Prices in
the few securities that. figured in the
trading showed a little easing on ten
dency. Mergenthaler, which dropped
within a few days from 233 and a frac-
ton to go, registered another fractional
decline yesterday, and sold at 229 IA on
small lots. Gas was not quite so firm.
| dropping from an opening at 61-2 to
| 81 3-& There was no marked demand for
Traction warrants, and the price was
easier, few sales ranging down from
4 8 S-4 to S1-2
Ad Men to Meet.
The annual election of the Washington
Ad Club. at which officers and fifteen di-
rectors will be chosen for the ensuing
year, will be held at the Fredonia Hotel
Monday night. The official ballot. dis
tributed by mail yesterday. reads as
follows: For president. ]. Harry Cum
ningham and Granville NJ. Hunt: for first
vice president, C. c. Green, w. c. Worth
| lnBlOus L. OHIeTOlnReTs LOT SeCOnO
vice president. George Ostermayer. r.
Edward Joyce. Charles w. Timmons; for
secretary, William Sherwood. Frank Rod
gers; for treasurer, Walter Mcdonnell,
William P. Hartley.
Street After Taft.
The campaign of anti-Taft sentiment
which has emenated from Wall street for
some months past and which has been
becoming more and more pronounced in
the writing of financial experts, cIrcu-
lated by the various banking houses,
seems to have come to a head recently.
| The Bache Review, circulated here by A
| G. Plant & Co., come out decidedly in
the open this week in this respect. 1t
says. under the caption, Hurting Busi-
ness"
There can be few worse situations for
the citizens. Of any country than to have
a government warning with it's business
| interests. The welfare of each individual
| is adversely affected.
But, unfortunately, he does not appear
to appreciate how easily business is hurt
1t hurts badly to bring suits, with the
earnest determination to dissolve them,
against the great industrial corporations
Of the country, which make it possible
for us to export millions OF dollars
worth of manufactures and pay our debts
abroad, as we'll as accumulate a surplus.
1t hurts business to have the stockholders
of these great corporations by the hun
dreds Of thousands, vince at falling
prices of their shares, sacrificing them
in some instances, and where they are
holding on, wondering with real heart
felt anxiety whether they are going to
turn out worthless, or how much of their
worth will remain II the government
wins. This hurts business. because 1t
makes capital wary of going into great
corporate enterprises, the success of
which has made the country great. Hurt
business means fewer men employed, and
If widespread, infiicts great suffering
upon the people out Of work, and their
families.
"All this is done to force the country
to old-fashioned competition. There is
plenty of competition now, but 1t has some
sense in it and does not go to the extent
of fierce warning, ending in extermina-
tion of rivals. as did the old-fashioned
kind. The difference between present
competition and the old kind is the differ
ence between a football game under the
rules of a fight with knives.
Under oId-fashioned competition big
men and little men went down. Ninety
per cent of the people who went into
business for themselves lost their capital
and retired, or went into bankruptcy.
Combination and price agreement are
the only remedies for this unholy waste
of time and money in selling goods with
out profit, with only the merchant who
can hold out the longest, surviving the
drastic process.
In those old-fashioned competition
days employees and laboring people took
their chances with one or other Of the
warning houses, and did not know when
they would lose their jobs. They were
constantly being thrown out of employ
ment.
Combinations came about to remedy all
this waste of capital and uncertainty of
employment. And they were not confined
to this country. There is not a civilized
commercial nation in the world to-day
which does not favor and legalize price
agreements. The "Kartels" of Germany
and the "cartels" of France are carried
on under government approval Prices
are agreed upon and sustained by the va
rious manufacturers and price-cutting is
penalized by large money forfeit. The
amount of output is regulated in the
same way. Prices and output limits are
changed, raised, or lowered, systematic
ally, by experts and by conference. They
are not made eXtortionate, but every pro-
vision is made for a fair profit by all
and foolish carrying on of business for
nothing is avoided. Even orders for goods
available by reason of near location, and
consequent reduced freight rates, are al
lotted to different members of the Kartel
situated nearest to the consumer, always
having in view the cheapening of prices
and the promptest execution.
The trend of all modern business in the
commercial countries of the world is to-
ward such harmony of price operation
that labor and capital will not be wasted
in foolish effort to compete without COM
mensurate profit, as under the CASTOR
methods of former years. This is the
irresistible economic trend of trade"
NEW YORK PRODUCE.