The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-16
NICHOLAS WALL
 STREET LETTER Market Deadlock Taxes Spe- cialties and Brokers TO BREAKING POINT Their Lamentations Are Painful. Necessary Fluctuation in Securi-
 ities Do Not Materialize.
 All Efforts Are Futile
TO BREAKING POINT
BY W. c. NICHOLAS

New York, April H.-tSpecial) )-The Market deadlock has taxed the endurance of spectators and brokers to the break ing point. Investors and stockholders of record do not appear to be in distress but those who make their living on the fluctuations in prices are in the doldrums. They walk and talk as though they were in a graveyard. Their lamentations are painful. To hear them one would think the end of the world is at hand.
 The expensive offices maintained by rich brokerage firms and banking houses in the Wall street district are deserted and the working staffs are being reduced on every hand. Customers slip around like ghosts stealthily reading the tapes and news slips and stealing away again.
 They have fallen into the habit of waiting and they show very clearly that they are going to try to stick 1t out as long as the big fellows persist In hold ing off and doing nothing except to auto matieally support the market against raids. If the supreme court at Wash ington does not act very soon Wall street will have to organize another Coxey army and march on the capitol.
 Several times this week leading op- orators with bearish proclivities have tested the strength of the market by mak- ing cautious drives at points they thought might be vulnerable. They have picked out the cats and dogs to make assaults Upon and in many cases met with con siderable success. Enbodened by that they turned their attention to the ia vorites and drove them off a point or two. Then they went up against some- thing hard and to their discomforture, although not entirely to their surprise, they ran into massed buying orders. They could go no further.
 The net result of their experiment. was an enlargement of the short &C., count, which is considered to the techni- cal advantage of the situation, inasmuch as the shorts have to buy back the stocks they sold thereby creating a demand and making for higher prices. The experl- ence, although not satisfactory, has not in the least changed the minds of the bear party which is just as strong as ever in the belief that the market will
 
 terial advance can occur. In this they are helped by knowledge that general business all over the country is In pro cess of renewed contraction.
 The iron and steel trade which is. un- der closest scrutiny shows a marked loss in activity. The falling away in orders since the first of the month in most oi the products of that industry amounts to about 20 per cent. according to the au- thorities. Railroad traffic Is also of d. minished volume, as measured by the number of idle cars. Stocks of copper metal continue to pile up and the out put Is increasing instead of diminish ing, as the gentleman's agreement had ordained. Tariff agitation Is upon the country and that is beginning to be a disturbing factor, even down in Wal street, which until a very few days age tried to ignore that issue. The offsetting circumstances are an increasing supply of idle money in all the important fiscal centers of Europe and America and the indications of purpose on the part O! the farmers of every state in the union to break all crop records-weather per hitting. It is clearly the belief of bank. that they will not have use for all their money in the ordinary business channels and they are lending all they can a very attractive rates for all times withid a year,.
 Desirable borrowers have no trouble in getting all the money they want at rat ,s that are almost unbelievable. Nine months money has been borrowed at , per cent and even under. 1t Is currently reported in the street Money is as chea z