The Washington times., 1911-08-13
Unmistakable Liquidation.

Very careful investigation made
among bankers and bank officials has
failed to locate. as yet. anv special
source of weakness and no single dis
duietinc runner of the many In Circula-
tion in the Street has been definitely
confirmed But that a liquidation is
running in the market is self evident
and that Il Is Of a character different
from that which arises solely from 4
selling out Uf mis- ellaneous accounts
in consequence of exhausted margins is
apparent To any one familiar with the
source of 4 speculative market.
Naturally with many active standard
or mere points within a brief space Of
two weeks .Ecrt has been enforced
selling. but the general tenderness or
the " mole list and tie failure OF the
the name suggests something Of a diff
ftrent character in the way Of hQuida-
tiOn such as the calm and deliberate
closing out of an important pool or
definite shift in market position by
some really influential interests OF per-
haps z combination of both. the former
being Influenced by the latter.
Disturbing Tendencies.
1t would surprise no one familiar with
the discussions which have taken place
in important banking Offices recently If
the latter theories should prove correct.
The idea uppermost in the minds of
some men ranking very high in <fnan-
cial circles is that the tendency OF Con-
gress as indicated by the chairman of
the Steel Investigating Committee Is
clearly in the direction OF undoing all
the construction work that has been
accomplished through the industrial
corpora atoms in the past twelve or MI
teen years The rank and file in the
Street for the most part has been re-
garding the Investigations as devised
solely for the purpose of making cam
paign material and as an agitation that
would pass with the adjournment OF
Congress.
The situation as the bankers see 1t
was we'll put by George w. Perkins
in his testimony before the Stanley
committee when in speaking of the dis
ruption of the Standard OIL Company
he said that the Governments action
was a danger flag to every other cor
poration in the country" To the finan-
cial and mercantile community the
rending and tearing of the great cor
poration aSunder quite naturally sug-
gests the idea of a rending and tearing
asunder of other great corporations, lr-
respective of any benefits which may
have been derived from them in the
way of cheapening prices or improving
the conditions Of labor or anything else.
An Underlined Standard.
OF course it is recognized everywhere
that corporations must obey the law,
and there is no intention upon the part
of corporation managers to violate the
statutes, hut the difficulty, as Mr.. Per-
lins pointed out, is that there is no
standard TO show which are legal and
which illegal. AS he put it, who can
tell the Steel Corporation or any other
corporation as the law stands today,
what is reasonab ble?' 1t is this uncer-
tainty regarding the status of the great
corporations and industrial concerns, to-
gether with the belief that there is a
clearly defined policy upon the part of
the controlling element in Congress to
work for the dissolution of the most
conspicuous of them all-the Steel trust
that has rendered bankers and mer-
chants tiInid.
If DEVELOPMENTS such as are taking
place in Washington with the trusts and
the tariff and with railway rates have
not Influenced the liquidation that mas
been in progress, they assuredly have
depressed sentiment in highly important
quarters and they have rendered buying
operations unattractive and thereby
they have rendered the market vulner-
able If there appeared to be any i'm
mediate prospect Of clearing up this sit
uation speeiily, some men in the finan- |
cial district would not be as blue as
they are today. The majority opinion,
however, is clearly to the effect that the |
the Presidential election, and that 1t
cannot be settled before that event.
Business Conditions Sound.
1t is highly fortunate that with so
much that is disturbing to sentiment
financially, that the general Industrial
situation is sound and that business is
proceeding along conservative nom
speculative lines. Wall Street OBJ |
servers, deeply concerned with their own |
special disturbances, are prone to over |
look the fact that the banking situation J
is very strong, that stocks Of mer-