The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-26
RATE DECISION
 JOLTS THE STREET Interests Fail to Secure Ad-
 vance Dope I PROBABLE RESULTS In Spite of Grand Chorus of Lamcn- tation It Is Believed That Ad-
 verse Decision Will Prove
 Beneficial to Securities
PROBABLE RESULTS
Bx w. c. NICHOLAS


 New York, February 25.-(special)- The decision of the interstate commerce | commission which came as a total sur prise and shock Tuesday afternoonnn knocked the breath out of the stock mar ket. Never had an important decision been more successfully safeguarded from the Washington and New York news scouts than this one. In the absence of facts the mind readers who were on the job at Washington had guessed that the commission would hand down a comprc-
 mise verdict, giving the western roads a little more than half they had asked for and the eastern roads a little less than half.
 So confidently had this forecast been handed out that 1t was generally accepted at it's face value. The result was that day afternoon and the opening Friday
 morning London had marked down Amer ican quotations 2h@7 points and the opening on the New York exchange was
 at the low prices made by London At and around opening quotations more than 10000 shares were sold. From that level the market recovered slowly, gain ing considerable nerve, however, along toward the close, which registered a re- covery of about half the loss. In spite of the grand chorus of la
 mentations handed out by railroad presi- dents, railroad lawyers and many of the
 leading bankers and flnanciers of the country, there Is a deep seated con-
 viction that the decision will in the end
 prove beneficial to corporate securities. | The decision establishes for the first ltime in definite and official form the prin | ciple of governmental control of rail-
 roads and by its assumption of such re- sponsibility places the credit and pro- 1 lection of the government behind organ l ized business. | It injects a new quality of value into | railroad stocks and bonds. About the worse the railroad managers have to say l is, that the decision will delay or put la stop to grand plans for spending l money, which money they expected to raise on the credit which would go with l a decision giving them the right to tax | the public $75,0000O0 to $100,00O,000 moro every year for freight than it Is now | paying.
 | The roads will now be obliged to get this money in large part by economizins | instead of by increasing their indebted | ness, something which in the end may re-
 dound to the advantage of the stockhold- l CTS.
 The market has become two-sided.
 Those who look for resumption in the l upward tendency of prices are convinced 1 that the country will continue to grow
 and that it is at the present moment l In the early stages of a period of splen-
 did Yrogress.
 l Those who take the opposite view hon. | estly believe for the most part that im- l provement to last must start from a sound basis and that they are not pre- | pared to admit has been established 1, as | yet. The strong point they make is that | the technical conditions are such that | drastic liquidation in certain quarters | must take place before there can be per- l manent advancement.
 1 The particular thing that engages their attention Is the copper market-shares I and metal. They are Outspoken in de- claring that important interests identified | with the copper industry and with spec l ulaton must be brought within safe linn i it's before the really controlling factors will consent to any boom being at l tempted.
 In this they may be and prODaDly are right, yet is must not be forgotten that | just that kind of talk had preceded ev- | cry important merger or unifcation of warning elements. Tt was heard for a year prior to the giant combine which | is now represented by the United States | Steel corporation with its share and | bonded capitalization of more than S1 300,
 OoO,OOO Everything was going to pot. l The various big steel manufacturing companies were extending plants in way l to insure ruin for all. The only sal vaton was to bring thsm together in one combine and this was done by MT. Mor- gan. After ten years the plan has proved l tc~ be a success.
 There may be a general big enough | to merge the great copper companies. Several strong men have been at work l on the job at various times for the last year and a half When the supreme court hands down its decision in the l pending trust cases, the project will be | revived in earnest and leading spirits l in the copper world will once more strug- | gle to bring about combination able to I control production and keep it within
 bounds. Until such time. the copper sit | uation is likely to be menace to the
 stock market-and maybe a very serious | menace.
 1 On the other hand the matter may be adjusted as quietly as that other great
 black cloud, the Gould properties" by which term was included the several cor | "A ~ovo+tnpc 1oy,oir,o ad Inv CQOrga T GOu1i