The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
By w. c. NICHOLAS

York stock exchange and II lney sNefe obliged to call any considerable part of
 these loans or ask for "sweetening'' or securities in the envelope there would be | liquidation on a scale that would break the market all to pieces. This is one Of the things that is fairly understood in the street and has been one of the
 reasons why values have been held so strongly and the market given an appelr- ance of bedrock stability. It has looked as though the ice might be 30 feet thick, whereas in point of fact it has been very
 thin in places and full of airholes.
 I It has become sort of superstition | that prices could not be broken and that anybody who dared think otherwise was | guilty of treason against the existing order of things in Wall street. There | being no apparent inducement to buy, and | the rank and file Of traders being afraid | to sell the market became stagnant and commission houses and brokerage houses went on a starvation summer basis. | There was nothing doing. Bull news was preached from every office in Wall street, l through the columns of every newspaper and screamed from the housetops. No | body appeared to hear or care conti- neptal. The market refused positively | to be talked into activity unless orders accompanied the conversation. It could
 not be Christian Scenced and people got sick of the farce.
 l The gloom was intensified when traders | received their statements of account Of | the first of the month and were called
 upon to stand big interest charges with
 no offsetting profits. They realized that they were eating their heads off and good many of them in sheer disgust or dered their stocks sold and the leak stopped. That might have been in reality the most important factor in the decline. No matter how thoroughly poisoned with
 the virus of speculation players vii! ger | tired once in while when there is noth | ing doing except to pay out good money | for the support of brokers and the banks. There has been unquestioned disappoinr- | ment over the failure of strongly enter | tained hopes of a general improvement to | begin about the first of July. There was a start all right, but somehow the siiua- ton went dead almost before anything was done.
 | 1t was another one of those flashes in the pan. A sputter and it was all over. | If there has been any real improvement | in the business situation it is only observ able in spots Tn the iron and steel and allied industries the early part of July witnessed some increase in orders but taking the manufacturing lines as whole, they do not show any marked ad- vancement in activity. The great fl .od of orders for equipment and new material for railroads has not materialized on any | thing like the scale expected. At the present moment the halt which took place during the latter half of July seems to | be giving way to actual recession in many departments. In New England for ir stance, there has not been a time i4l years ' nen there was less machinery in motitn
 and when there were more working men
 and working women either, out of em- rloyment or working on short time. The
 same is true in four-fifths of the nlanu-
 featuring localities except here and there | in the middle west and south.
 l The tariff is blamed for the non-filnl-
 ment of promises of a revival in the in- 6ustry. A Gleam of hope was felt when Washington reports were printed to the
 effect that the democratic majority in
 the House of Representatives had an-
 nounced a willingness to put through d
 moderate tariff revision programme at
 this special session if the republican Ser-
 ate and President would cooperate, thus putting a speedy and to further depi ess-
 Ing agitation and uncertainty. On Wcdnes- l cay the day of the market slump, this
 good news was knocked in the head by an l apparently authorized statement that
 the President would veto the first tariff
 i'll that might be presented for his sigma | ture thereby serving notice that he
 would not permit the arrangement to yc
 through. If this should be done and the lcountry forced to endure a year and a
 half more of disquietng tariff agitation
 because of the presidential refusa, to
 bring 1t to close, expectations of a
 grand and glorious business revival might
 as well be abandoned. Such at least is
 the opinion of a large majority of man i,
 the financial district. Information received
 by the representatives of every business | interest in the country is that the people
 arc overwhelmingly for moderate revision
 and that the manufacturing interests feel | ing that there is no avoiding the issue are reconcied to quick action and more than willing to have Congress act ouic,,lv along the middle ground of reasonah,e reduction in duties.
 For the administration at SWasbiug ton to refuse to join hands with the de.r- ocrats in such a programme is felt bv many of the best friends and well wish CTS in the financial world that MT. Taft is making serious 1nistake-that he will discover himself to have been outplayeo and out-generaled by the leaders of the opposition. It is felt that he will be placed upon the defensive and will have a hard time convincing the millions of voters that there is sincerity in the expressions in high republican circles of a desire to give the public a rest and chance to go ahead and do business with some assur- ance of stability. It will be seem there fore, that there is good ground for bls,n- ing tariff uncertainty and national poli- ties for the latest unfavorable develop.
 ment in the broad business situation
 The stock market is notfo be allowed 10 go to pieces or to become badly de- moralized. Nevertheless it costs lot of money to prevent prices from finding a
 eve many points below the current
 range. Every time rally is engineered.
 the bull party has to take over lot or stocks. A multitude of alert people stand
 ready to supply the demand. Stocks are
 daily becoming more concentrated-that
 is to say, the floating supply. That this
 floating supply is large is shown by bank