The Washington times., 1911-09-24

| tnlS mucn seems certain. tnat suddenly
as II at a given signal, the entire fnan
cial community awakened to a realiza
ton that the United States Steel Cor,
poration could not escape Fedora
prosecution under the Sherman anti
trust act. With this for the startIn.
point rumor~ and conjecture ran riot al
to the ways and means of accomplish.
ing a dissolution and as to the possible
| results Of any attempt to resolve the
worlds biggest corporation into its
original entities.
Speculative Wall Street worked itself
into a condition Of hysteria over the
matter, and sober, investment Wall
Street became highly disturbed. As a
result the stock market witnessed the
most violent liquidation in United States
Steel stock which has ever taken place
in a single issue unattended by panic
| Upon two successive days dealings in
the common and preferred shares COM
bined contributed substantially one-half
of an enormous total business, amount
ing. on Thursday, to 623, 800 out Of an
aggregate Of 1,25SOOO shares. On this
/ occasion Steel common broke 81 and
the preferred 6h points. This was ex-
I Il
| tributed 752.300 toward total sales Of
\ $4,000 shares, the common again
breaking 81 and the preferred 2Ss points.
Unusual Liquidation.
Persons whose Wall Street recollec-
lions go back for a generation can re-
call but two or three instances when
such enormous trading as this has con-
verged upon the issues Of a single COM
pany. There was an occasion back in
1892 when Reading went into the hands
of a receiver when nearly 800, 900 shares
| breaking upward Of twenty points, but
| Reading is half-stock, and so the total
value involved was actually less. Again
in March, 1907, there was a session on
which Union Pacific contributed nearly
700. 900 shares to a days total dealings,
breakings upward Of twenty points, but
that was a period of semi-panic, and.
in fact, 1t has passed into Wall Street
history as the silent panic" Upon
the present occasion. despite the violent
decline in the Steel stocks, there was
| comparatively little disturbance else
where, and the railway list held gen.
orally strong.
| Several developments in combination
served to center the attention of the
financial district upon the Steel Cor
poration. First and foremost was
President Taft's speech at Detroit, in
which he defended the Sherman act.
argued against any amendments to 1t
and reiterated specifically his views on
the subject of Investigations presented
originally in his special message to Con-
gress on January I, 1910 Wall Street
has always dated the great decline in
the ffcurity market year ago from
this especial message. in which the
President said 1t was his duty and
through the Department of Justice,
through the grand jury and otherwise,
into the history, organization and pur-
poses Of all industrial companies" to
determine whether they were violating
the law.
Dissolving the Trusts.
The financial district did not relish
this reminder OF what IT has ever re-
garded as a source of trouble. Neither
did II take kindly to the Presidents as
sertions that we did get along with
competition in the past and that the
business men of the country would have
to square themselves to competition in
the future. To the Wall Street mind
this suggested the undoing of all the
constructive development Of the last
dozen or fifteen years. That is, the
dissolution OF the great industrial COM
binatons, and particularly the Steel
Corporation, and resolving 1t back to
it's component parts, that these and
other iron and steel companies-the So
called independents-may actively
strive for business again as in the old
days when rails, for instance, and
the market. and steel, as Mr.. Carnegie
remarked, was sometimes prince and
All Wall Street of course has known
that the Steel Corporation has been
President Taft has mentioned, and
there is the Stanley Congressional In
vestigation Committee besides, which
has only ceased activities temporarily.
Aside from that. however, the best
have stated repeatedly, within the last
six weeks or So that the Government
had drawn up q bill Of complaint
against the Steel Corporation. When |
It would be filed, or whether 1t would
but they asserted unequhocally that a |
bill had been prepared, and very few
well-informed persons have questioned |
the accuracy Of this report. 1t came |
from too high source for that.
Reticent Steel Officials.
What contributed more than any
thing else-next to President Taft's de-
fense Of the beauties of the Sherman |
act and the Supreme Courts deci1ons,
under It In the Standard OIL al the |
American Tobacco Company cases-to |
confirm the belief with the general pub |
lie that the Steel Trust is not immune |
from prosecution, was the unusual at |
titude Of the officials of the corporation |
when bankers, brokers and newspaper |
men alike sought affirmation or denial |
of the reported lawsuit by the Govern |
ment or the reported voluntary dissolu- |
ton Of the trust This latter course of |
possible procedure was naturally enough |
suggested by the agreement entered |
into with the Department Of Justice in |
the cases Of the International Har-
vester Company, the electric light man.
ufacturers and the Southern Whole
sale Grocers' Association, by which the
agreed to readjust their affairs
to conform with the law,
of the Steel Corporation in this matter
at the present time as IN such striking
contrast with their usual willingness to
talk on any subject affecting the in
dustry and the corporation that every
one became convinced Of the truth Of
an impending dissolution or q Govern
ment suit. 1t cannot be said that any
thing that has emanated from an
onymous sources, either in washington
or in New York, has removed this
deep-seated impression, that SUIT or a /
readjustment of affairs Is
impending. Prominent directors" and
bankers closely identified with the |
property have issued denials or have
f,,4A