Evening star., 1911-05-28

Steel and there was q break Of severa!
points in Union Pacific. Reading and
those issues which are moro or less in
timately associated with them in the
copper stocks strongly resisted the pres
sure 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.
Some of the specialties acted with entire
independence Of the raided part Of the
market, notably Western Union, which
advanced 8 points to 841s in the face OF
the general weakness.
Returning to Esteem.
The telegraph stock has been very
active of late and seems to be coming
back into popular esteem as a specula-
tive favorite. In the language Of a
famed advertisement. there is a reason. 1"
One reason has been the growing busi-
agement and with its new alliances. The
business of the company has increased in
every direction and the public is shower
ing hundreds Of thousands Of dollars into
it's treasury in appreciation Of the i'm
proved service. Furthermore. there is a
firm belief that the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company, controlled by
the Mackay estate and q group Of New
England financiers. has been steadily in
creasing its holdings Of Western Union
taken over several months ago. The
people now in control of the two COM
panies see great advantage to be gain
ed by an absolute merger Of the proper
ties instead of by ownership control as
under the present arrangement.
The telegraph and telephone businesses
are naturally and legitimately inter
woven. and under a single ownership
much better results can be obtained than
with divided responsibility or pretense OF
such. In addition to these excuses for
the advance which has been going on for
some weeks and which took on acute
form the beginning Of the present week,
comes a further curious explanation. 1t
is to the effect that very high official
in the new management, who was him.
self telegrapher 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 few shares of Western
Union and hold it for par. The tip which
was not tip in the ordinary market
sense. seemed to have found large cir
culation and was probably responsible
for a good share of the six-point bulge
which took place Monday and Tuesday
and was followed by very considerable
realizing of profits on the play. 1t was
not until the last day Of the little cam
paign that anybody of size seemed to be
saw a chance for little whirlwind play
without much risk, and the four
half-point jump in price was the result.
Def Promptly Accepted.
The prompt acceptance of the Repub-
lies def" by the Steel Trust through
its subsidiary. the Carnegie Steel Com
pany, was received with varying emo
tions. 1t was generally considered that
the locking of horns meant a genuine
fight for business, and that heavier cuts
may yet be seen in prices of products
before the end is reached. The important
point is whether the break will stimu-
late business or not and just how far
the break will have to go before it is
stopped by an accumulation of orders
enough to keep the mills going on a
larger capacity than is now in use.
About fifteen months ago the trade had
a taste of fierce battle for business
in which the trust swept the field clean
and got all the orders for a period of
several weeks. Directions to it's sales
men were to get the business regardless
of price, and these gentlemen of the road
felt that their jobs depended on a litera
execution of instructions. They passed
the word along among themselves that
they might as well send in their resigna-
| tions if they let any OF the independents
get away with an order. The independents
were brought to terms in short order.
The steel trust qicials indignantly deny
that there was a.lF coercion attempted in
! this campaign, but they are really not