The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-06
FINANCE IS WORRIED OVER EXTRASESS|ON Announcement Caused De-
 cline in Prices FEAR TARIFF REVISION Whole Week Was Nervous and Un- certain-Stocks Showed Good
 Resistance Against Rate
 Decision Influence
FEAR TARIFF REVISION

New York. March 5.-Definite announce ment of the decision of President Taft to call an extra session of Congress was the final development in a week of nervous uncertainty on the stock exchange. Throughout the week speculation was in-
 iuenced chiefly by the day-to-day indi- cations as to the probability of an extra session. and as it became more apparent late in the week that the new Congress was to assemble shortly, the market was subjected to pressure which lowered prices. The unfavorable influence of the extra session grows out of the professed fear that a general tariff revision will be opened to discussion with unsettling effect on business.
 The stock market of the early part of last week showed good power of resist ance to the shock of the railroad rates decision and made some progress toward recovery. The later retrogression of prices suggested the thought that group of speculators who had acquired large holdings found themselves in a vulnerable position and deemed it advisable to re- duce their commitments in view of the uncertainties created by the decision. The poor comparison of January railroad earnings with that month of last year and renewal of governmental activity against alleged monopolies increased the disposition to reduce stock holdings.
 The rate decision itself was accepted as offering a mixture of benefit even by some of the railroad officers themselves. AS barrier to further enhancement of prices and costs, the advantage of fixed freight rates for commerce as a whole is clear to all. The exhaustive review of Ameri- can railroad finances which accompanied the commissions ruling makes an official certiication to the high values of Amer ican railroad properties, of their earnings power and of the progressive increase of both, which is recognized as an effective argument for investors and is calculated to aid in the enlistment of foreign capital in American enterprises.
 The declining tendency of railroad earn ings in January was sufficiently pro- nounced and general to cause solicitude. Reports of the great railroad systems both east and west made the showing fairly comprehensive and stocks Of rail- roads in the south and southwest, where
 he earnings were relatively better, suf- fered in common with others in the weak ness
 Reports of car loadings In February and the growing surplus of the country's idle freight cars carried the intimation of a continuance of the recession In railroad traffic. The effect was to give warning against too sanguine assumptions from the revival of January in the steel trade, even with the news of February main tenance of the improvement in that basic industry. The railroad conditions dis closed in the weeks news are the belated sequence to the declining course of the steel trade through the last quarter of the last year. The value thus affixed to that earlier steel trade depression as an index of what was to follow in other fields en- courages confidence in the present steel trade revival as herald of later i'm provement where prosperous activity is now tagging. In the stock market. how ever, the rise in prices which had oc- cured and the long pause which had fol- lowed left speculative sentiment sensitive to diScoura cement