The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-23

the first quarter of the year and it must be admitted that there is very little in the |, situation at this moment to induce fresh | buying. It Is being made plain that the | leading fnanciers and representatives of l important interests are not looking for l an immediate business revival This is shown by the continual growth of de- posits in banks and by the anxiety of GUS todians of the surplus cash to loan it out at almost any price they can get for it. large loan was made by city insti- tuition this week for four months at a
 rate of 2% per cent. Any amount of money can be borrowed by the right kind of people on the right kind of collateral at per cent for four to six months. The ability of responsible people to bor- row money on such easy terms is a temptation to buy dividend paying stocks which is very hard to resist and despite 1 the general appearance of weakness an | immense amount of that kind of capital | is being kept in the stock market.
 The public is evincing a disposition to I tighten its load for the last week or two
 On the active days this week some good sized blocks of long stock bought for speculation went over. The decline on the weak days helped along by liberal sales 1 for short account and in some of the in- active specialties the shorts found 1t im- possible to borrow stocks with which to make deliveries.
 There was no floating supply and mes- sengers scurried around from office to of | flee trying to get a hold of the certif- cates Tn some cases brokers had to ask two days grace in order to dig up the goods There were very few stocks which were in at all liberal supply. These were Steel. Reading, Union Pacific | Missouri f v | to get these.
 l In very important industrial and bank | ing circles it is stoutly maintained that supreme court decisions adverse to the trusts in the pending big cases have not been discounted and that when they are handed down the market will surely go to pieces. They are fortified in this belief | by Washington information that the de- pertinent of justice has made prepara- tions to at once begin proceedings against at least half dozen big industrial com bitnations, should the Standard Oil and Tobacco trusts be declared unlawful com binatons.
 | It is stated on what seems to be very | reliable authority that Attorney General Wickersham has briefs already prepared against the. United States Steel corpora tion, Amalgmated Copper, International Harvester Shelters and the American Woolen company. Opinion is very strong | ly held by the best informed lawyers and their banking and corporation clients l that the supreme court will find against | the trusts. This theory is based largely on a careful study and analysis of the | utterances of the jurists who compose the supreme bench
 The records of every one of the sitting | judges has been carefully gone into and the result leaves little doubt in the mind as to what the pending decisions will be. l The hope is entertained, however, that the court will find a way cut of the diff ficuty as was done in the case of the Northern Securities company-in other words, that the court will write some helpful and guiding legislation into it's decisions-legislation which would avert further hostile action by the department of justice and point way by which ether trusts can reconstruct themselves without disturbance. The uncertainty of the situation is such, however, that bI, people positively will not do anything in the way of new enterprise or new depar- ture until they know exactly where they stand. In this respect thel situation has not changed one ioia from what it was SO or 90 days ago.
 The latest sensation sprung in the Mis- souri Pacific has caused infinite amuse- ment in Wall street. The summary man ler in which the great banking house of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was thrown outx OF It's assumed control of the Missouri Pa. |cifc system was spectacular incident It was also humiliating in the extreme