The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-28
CUT IN STEEL.
 PRICES LEAKS OUT Had Been Known in Wall
 Street Some Time BUT IT WAS KEPT HID Attempt To Buck Against Laws of Trade Is Flat Failure-The
 Situation Not Satisfactory
 To Stock Brokers
ny ". c. NICHOLAS

I operators had foreknowledge of the an nouncenent of a cut in steel products by the Republic Iron and Steel com pany-announcement tantamount of de- claration for an "open market The news was not entirely a surprise to the street because it had been a well known fact for some time that great majority of business placed with the mills had been at cut rates, the average reduc- ton in prices having reached a level of s4 to $6 per ton under the prices of 1907, and almost that much under the schedules two years ago. Still, It was thought by many that there would be no open announcement of the great re- duction in prices and that the real in side facts would be withheld if possi-
 ble from general public knowledge
 Such was not to be the case, how ever and 1t remained for the John w. Gates company to throw the bombshell which was to open the eyes of the world to an unfavorable condition which had been kept as much as possible trade lsecret.
 Now everybody knows that cutting and slashing has been going on for weeks and months, in spite of the optimistic utterances of Judge Gary and his asso- ciates and in spite of those numerous har- mony dinners under the auspices of the Steel trust management The umbrella holding policy so long and so earnestly advocated by Judge Gary and his faction in the Steel trust has fallen down.
 It has proved flat failure, as must all attempts to buck against the laws of trade which are as well defined as the laws of gravity. We now have the spec tacle of iron and steel production amount ing to about 55 per cent of capacity, and a scramble among every producer for a share of the ensmalled business. | It is a situation that cannot be tortued into something like satisfaction. It was used as a club to beat down the stock market, which proved to be quite an ef- fectual one. Heavyweight plungers, know 1 ing in advance what was on foot, sold out heavy lines of long stock at the high prices made on the boom that fol- lowed the Standard oil decision and there was also terrific selling by the bear con- tingent This latter element acted with more than usual aggressiveness ana pounded the market without mercy. Steel common was the target and the fire of every sharpshooter in the street was di- rected against that speciality.
 All the favorites followed the lead Of Steel and there was break of several
 ID those issues which are more or less in- timately associated with them in the mar ket understanding. Strangely, the Copper stocks strongly resisted the pressure and suffered only moderately on the reaction. The Hill group, Atchison. Pennsylvania and other standard dividend payers were also reluctant to take the back track, although they had to yield. 1 Some of the specialties acted with en- 1 tire independence of the raided part of the market, notably Western Union, which advanced 6 points to S41a in the face of the general weakness.
 The telegraph stock has been very ac- tive of late and seems to be coming back into popular esteem as a speculative favorite. In the language of a famed ad- yertisement there is a reason One reason has been the growing business Of the company under its new management and with it's new alliances. The business of the company has increased in every direction and the public is shoWerlng hundreds of thousands of dollars into it's treasury in appreciation of the improved service. Furthermore, there is firm be- lief that the American Telephone and la6 hU Mackay estate and group of New Eng land financiers, has been steadily increas- ing it's holdings of Western Union ever since the Gould family interests were taken over several months ago. The peo- pie now in control of the two companies see a great advantage to be gained by an absolute merger of the properties in stead of by ownership control, as under the present arrangement.
 The telegraph and telephone businesses are naturally and legtimately interwoven and under single ownership much bet ter results can be obtained than With di- vided responsibility or pretense of such In addition to these excuses for the ad- vance which has been going on for some weeks and which took on acute form the beginning of the present week, comes further curious explanation. It is to the effect that a very high official in the new management, who was himself a telegra- pher in his younger days and who has a warm heart for some of his former friends of the keyboard, gave several of them friendly suggestion to get hold of a few shares of Western Union and hold it for par
 The tip which was not a tip in the or dinary market sense seemed to have found large circulation and was probably responsible for a good share of the 6 point bulge which took place on Monday and Tuesday and was followed by very considerable realizing of profits on the play. It was not until the last day of the little campaign that anybody of size seemed to be acting. Then, someone on the exchange saw chance for little whirlwind play without much rick and the AZ point jump in price was the re- suit.
 The prompt acceptance of the Republics "def'' by the Steel trust through its sub sdiary, the Carnegie Steel company, was received with varying emotions. It was generally considered that the locking of honrs meant genuine fight for business and that the cuts may yet be seen in prices of products before the end is reached The important point is whether the break will stimulate business or not. and just how far the break will have