The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-16

an immense profit to add io their already extraordinary surplus, insure railroads at
 least of an average tonnage and guaran-
 tee the country against the necessity or further business contraction. In brief, the
 situation is comfortable aud holders of stocks feel no particular uncasiness oTer the future.
 The banks must keep their surplus money busy and if they can't do it in the
 so-called legitimate channels then they
 must let Wall street have 1t. If they piled it up in their vaults trey would be
 charged with eornering the money market and be subject to criticisms which wouid
 make life burdensome. The west and southwest are drawing down their eastern
 balances from two to three weeks earlier than usual and that helps some. On ac- count .of the early season the rush Of matured crops makes this move naturat and there is no strain iu any direction. Western farmers are also sending to mar ket their old reserves in ,srger quantity than uhua They have 5ig supplies Of last years products on hand and the fact that they are freely selling at presen- prices show two things. They feel reas- lonably certain of this years yield and they are satisfied with the figures they can get rid of the stuff for Not oaiy are they cleaning out their bins but they are contracting heavily for future -ie- livery. In their own special field farmers are about the shrewdest merchants we know of. They know wra. it costs to produce their crops and can generally be relied upon to sell when trey can get good profit. Formerly u ey pulled their
 own products by buying futures in the commodities markets truined army or experienced spectators sold against titese
 country purchases and made fabulous sums out of the carrying charges. All that | is changed and now speculative money provided by somebody else besides the farmers has to pay the cost of carrying farm products from the producer to the ultimate consumer. The result is a I mighty shifting of wealth and the bal anee of power from the cits gamblers to the agricultural regions.
 A few big spectators still ply thair
 vacations in wheat, corn and cotton out
 if they stay in the game it is because
 they shift from one side to the other
 where the money lies. The old crowd
 that got rich selling for future delivery
 for the premiums is no longer a dom'n Iating force. Death, bankruptcy or retire
 ment from the active field las cut down it's numbers and reduced it's strength
 Some of the richer ones of the lot trans
 ferred themselves to Wall street and are
 now powerful in the stock market and
 banking world Farmers are educated to
 the fine points of the garIe and are mak-
 ing the money the same as many other
 manufacturers do who know their bus-
 ness. The constituency that has fed and
 enriched Wall street is also learning it's lesson. It is no longer rushing in and
 out of the stock market at the behest e the brokers and manipuatols but is calm ly forming it's own judgment and acting
 thereon independently and intelligentiy.
 It is not of record that the public" is as
 yet buying yachts by the wholesale, but
 1t is quite certain that the brokers and
 commission merchants do not have t.e
 money to spend in extravagances as for
 merly. They complain bitterly that tnelr Iold customers, such of them as remain
 solvent are doing business directly
 through their bankers, thereby saving , their interest accounts anG otherwise cut
 ting into the profits that formerly went
 to the middleman. This is one of the de-
 velopments of recent years and at no time has it been so apparent as now.
 There has never been time when the
 public held as many stocks or in such
 large volume as now and there has never been a time when it was more independ ent of brokerage house machinery and advice. All told, not less than 100000 men, women and estates figure in the
 list of stockholders of record in railroad and industrial companies All of this immense army of thinking human be-
 ings have been educated to think for themselves and to act on their own mo-
 ton. There has of late been wide diff fusion of knowledge and growing inde- pendence of Wall street. This is one of
 the reasons why stock market values are so strongly maintained in the face If a strongly professional bearish sentiment
 on the stock exchange.
 Those who want to gamble are going elsewhere. They are enoarking in land
 and mining schemes ard wherever else they see a prospect of big returns on their money. A majority Of them will ger
 skinned, as they were formerly skinned
 by buying stocks at the top and being
 frozen out at the bottom. but the desife , for quick action cannot be killed. Spec ulative capital demands and will find &C., , ton. All that is needed is tfe inducement and as long as they can Ind an attractive layout the flow of sucker money in
 that direction will continue. Just now it , Is barely dribbling into Wall street, al- , though at no time has there been such
 an enormous miscellaneous investment of
 real money in legitimate stocks represent ing legitimate and going enterprises. If Is tribute to the honest and intelligent
 management of properties in whicht an intelligent and educated public has ir- lyested it's surplus.
 Statisticians have figured out that the government crop estimates indicate a
 smaller grain crop than last year by to- tai of more than 400,O00,0G0 bushels, the s loss appearing in the corn and oats col l umn. The outlook Is for a cotton crop of IA, ,500 900 bales or better. Wcrd that comes from the south is particularly full oi l hope and buoyancy. The coming great ) boom Is developing in that part of the United States It seems to be building Everywhere throughout the south, from remotest Texas clear around the coast : and across to Virginia. anada on the north Is also enjoying a pTcdigious boom and there is inflow of population there
 of not less than 5O0,O0O year with every. , thing that goes with such an invasion of enterprising men of Drawn and anbl
 ton.
 . The best information points to gradua
 but sure improvement in the industria quarter The iron and steel centers re-
 port growing business arc there Is \
 better feeling in the copper industry
 Stocks of copper metal arc undergoing
 slow reduction and there iS undoubtedly
 increasing activity in the manufacturing
 division. The country seems to have, tc
 a very considerable extent discounted | whatever may be done in the way of tariff { revision, although, of course, the read r justment cannot be compete until Con- 7 gress finally acts on the schedules, which , may not be for a year frcm now.