The Washington herald., 1911-03-06

New York, March 5.-Trying as the
course of the stock market lately has
been to the power of patience and phil
osophy possessed by people who believe
that fundamental conditions warrant the
maintenance of values, it IS yet to be OBJ
served that this decline has been after
all logical from a speculative point Of
view and that fundamental conditions
themselves have not changed.
The fall in prices has been pretty alb
rupt In the last two weeks of stock ex-
change business over half of the ad-
vance in prices that was recorded since
the first week of December. 1910, was
wiped out, and the only fair inference
from this is that much of the buying OF
stocks which caused this rise was by
spectators who are quick TO take fright
ct momentary developments and who
have not yet enlisted the broad and en-
thusiastic support of the general public
in a campaign for higher prices. little
less than a year ago when the Supreme
Court of the United States announced
that there would have to be a reargument
of the American Tobacco and Standard
Oil cases the opinion was expressed in
this column that while this news would
probably prove stimulating to the i'm
mediate security market its ultimate
effect would be unfavorable, inasmuch as
il left decisive construction of the anti
trust law overhanging the general bust
ness and financial situation for an in
definite time to come
Causes for the Decline.
Perhaps it is not asserting too much
Hap1arp
have demonstrated the correctness OF this
view. Last years decline in the stock
market. arising essentially from the
operation of purely economic forces. came
to an end in midsummer, and there is no
doubt whatever that if a decision in the
antitrust cases had been at that time
a matter of history instead of the sub
ject OF dread and apprehension, a re-
covery in business would have taken
place sooner than it did.
Even now the fact of this recovery as
n general proposition is disputed by many
people. and the truth is that every great
business organization in the country is
unable to feel sure even after acting in
accord with the best legal advice OBJ
tainable whether it is or is not con-
Quoting its affairs in accord with the
law of the land.
Security prices have advanced moderate
ly in the meantime, because some bust
ness Improvement has actually taken
place and because signs are clear that
with the trust question out Of the way
there will be a great unloosening of finan-
cial activity in every direction. Hope and
speculative anticipation of such an I'M
lOosening have combined to produce buy
ing of stocks.
Soon Grow Discouraged
Nevertheless, from time to time buyers
Of the class described get faint hearted
and discouraged over such further OBJ
stacles thrown in the path of rising values
as the gathering OF the strong probabili-
ties that shaped themselves last week re-
garding an extra session of Congress. at
which it was not unlikely that there
might be a general overhauling Of the
tariff Optimism had made such Roadway
in the financial community that most peo-
pie were unwilling to believe that the
country was actually face to face with
a session of Congress this summer en-
gagged in the revision, that is to say in
4 programme of lowering. the existing
tariff duties.
1t was not absolutely fixed that even if
an extra session should be called a gen
sral tariff smashing would be INDUCED in
Most OF the agitation of this sort that has
been witnessed since the Payne AldriCh |
bill became A law has been for lower |
1uties upon clothing. fOod-stuffs, and two |
1r three OF the necessaries of life, leaving |
he matter of a broad tariff revision for
at n later date. Still. it was |
that nobody could tell what |
night happen once an extra session of |
Congress began, and as the days passed |
md the probability of the calling of an |
extra session became more pronounced |
prices of securities were unfavorably |
Affected, and naturally so, by the fact.
There are many observers and critics |
who maintain that it might be the best |
hing after all to get the tariff dispute |
out of the way this year, and have it |
lone with; that is If it has to be done |
1t all. But this argument fell mostly |
upon deaf ears, just as did the COM
non sense view that the refusal of the |
interstate Commerce Commission to al
ow a general advance in railway freight |
-ates brings with it certain strong COM
oensations to railway stockholders and
% business interests in the mass