The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-17
ADVANE REASONS FOR MARKET CALM Copper Slump Had a Very
 Decided Effect RAILROAD SITUATION But Greatest Cause of Uncertainty Is Chaos That Rules With Regard
 to Status of Hundreds of
 Corporations
By W. G. NICHOLAS

New York, September 16.-(Special) J. The news vendors in Wall street have been harping on the Moroccan dispute as one of the principal reasons why investors and speculators should be disturbed about the prices of American securities. It is probably true that considerable foreign liquidation of American stocks has re- suited from the diplomatic sparring for points between France and Germany, but the stocks which came in from abroad on that account have not been a drop in the bucket compared to liquidation by home people and by short selling for profes- sional account The real reasons are to be found nearer home. The fog that has enveloped the situation for weeks past is lifting and the actual sources and causes of the slump in the New York and Boston stock markets are becoming dis cernible. The worst of it is there seems to be no near prospect of a change for the better. although prices have smashed to such low levels that real investors with real money ought soon to be com ing into the market and securing par gains.
 One recent and present cause of weak ness is to be found In the tremendous liquidation of Copper securities in the Boston market. New England has long specialized in Copper stocks and 1t has over extended itself in that direction. The amazing profits realized by stockholders in Calumet & Hecla turned the heads of the staid New Englanders and led them to investments in endless Copper promo tions. some of which turned into pro- ducing mines and many others into dis appointments. The failures probably out numbered the successes in the proportion of 100 to 1. Consequently while the share holders in Calumet & Eecla have taken down s11O.OoO,ooO or thereabouts in profits, investors in other Copper properties have lost five times that amount In the last five or ten years There has been vio- lent slump in; the prices of nearly every Copper stock dealt in on the Boston mar ket which Is the head center of specula-, tive activity in that mining and promo tion speciality. There has been a general collapse in many of the New England favorites within the last six weeks and the immediate losses to Yankee nves- tors has mounted up into the tens of mill lions of dollars. Boston and other New England banks have been in the habit for years of loaning money heavily on Cop per mining securities.
 The collapse came so suddenly that it udS lcIt tIlo DdnhlnS 1DSlltullOnS or that section loaded to the guards with a mass of unstable junk, and the bankers of the rest of the country are looking askance at them. Here are two or three instances that will illustrate the extent of the ca- lamity that has befallen the Boston Cop per share market: Arizona Commercial has dropped from $51 a share to % cents a share, and 8 S1,000, 900 issue of converti- blo bonds of that company broke from POO to 35. The Boston & Corbin scold down from $25 share to. s4. The Allou- veg, control of which was bought by Calumet & Hecla not long ago at $s1 a share, has slumped to s2l. Copper Range slid from $1o5 to $50. Calumet & Hecla, which only few years ago sold at 5000 share, Is now dragging around $40O. The New York Copper share mar ket has not suffered as badly as that of Boston. Amalgamated. Utah, Nevada Consolidated, Chino, Ray Consolidated and other New York Copper stocks have gone down with the rest of the market, but no faster. Those who keep in close touch with the copper situation look for what they call secondary liquidation" in Copper. They prophecy a smash in the New York copper stock list to cor respond to that in Boston, and they also predict break of cent or two pound in the metal. If that should occur, it would probably put copper on a sound mines which are now barely paying their way, and would reduce production to req sonable limits.