The Washington times., 1911-03-05

able to make up their minds as to
Quantities, and many orders, IL is re-
ported, which were deferred have
been placed.
Railway Earnings and Retrenchment
Quite naturally, with Wall Street in
a Respondent mood, mucn was made
| during the week of the unfavD -able net
railway earnings for January ly some
large roads, and the retrenchment Or
ders issued by others. Thus the Penn
sylvania railroad reported a net de-
crease on Eastern lines of 51,23O. 90 and
sylvania railroad reported a net de-
crease of 100; the Union Pacific's net
earnings decreased s263, 900, and Southern
Pacifc's decreased $751;, 900. The worst
showing of any of the large corpora
uons, however, was made by the New
York Central lines, which, for January,
decreased $64,9l3 in gross and $1,S75, ,355 in
net earnings. Despite this unfaVora BILE
showing the railway traffic returns are
by no means uniformly bad, and, in
fact, the Southern and Southwestern
roads are making excellent returns.
Much was made, also. by persons of a
pcssimistic turn of mind Of the laying
OF of 70 per cent of the men, involving
about 100 hands, engaged in construction
work by the st. Paul road, and a reduC-
ton of 10 per cent in the shop force of
the Lake Shore Company. These are
exceptional cases, and though, as a mat
ter of fact, the economy which the rail-
ways must put in force as a result of
the rate decisions is likely TO influence
quiet period in industry, there are nu-
merous signs of revival. AS to iron and
steel improvement is unmistakable, the
bookings of the Steel Corporation for
February averaging rrom 5000 to 1900
tons day, and that plant is now run
ming at about 6 per cent of capacity
against not more than so per cent Of
capacity only a few weeks ago.
Bonds and Investments.
Unquestionably the best feature in the
market of the week was found in the
bond division. Trading in bonds was
not so active on the Stock Exchange for
the speculative issues. which have been
feature there in recent weeks, were
naturally affected in the same way as
speculative stocks by the depressing
news of the interval Good investment
issues, however, such as are dealt in
over the counter" by bond houses con-
tinued In excellent request. and short
term notes found a ready sale with In
stitutions. This is evidenced by the
quick disposition of 81, 10000 three-year
per cent Erie notes, offered at the out
set Of the week, and Of $50, ,OOO,O 900 New
York Central three-year AZ per cents
offered privately on Friday. The entire
Erie lot was taken within an hour of
their formal offering.
Another Offering of the week which
attracted attention was that of the
Studebaker Corporation, which made an
Offering of SI3. 10000 per cent preferred
stock. This issue was heavily oversub-
scrtbed and advanced to a premium of l
per cent above the issue price on the
day OF the subscription. OF course sales
of short term notes are rather in the
nature of banking than investment
transactions and a quick disposition Of
per cent preferred Industrial stock
throws no particular light on the bond
market, but the transactions indicate
that there Is an abundance of money in
the market seeking employment at at
tractive rates. The recent activity in
notes and preferred stocks and public
utility bonds, all giving returns higher
than the old-time railway and Industrial
issues, is perplexing bondmen somewhat