The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-02-11

Sib n ter DDrD- Met
2"a Intcrbor9-Met.. pfd... Sl5s e
and greatly retarded deliveries Of
freight Naturally enough under tho
circumstances. IL was in coal cars that
the decrease in idle Cars was greatest
rapid tnOvcmen, OF coal beng demand.
ed not only by the exigencics of the
weather, but ny the fear that work a,
the mines may be stopped at the ex-
Pifation OF the antiiracit, miners
agreement next month
The Black Diamond told harrow
ms tale OF the difficulties OF moving
coal II said in outline :"One Of the
heaviest coal carriers gave Detroit
only htteen cars 81 coal this week.
locking VALLEY Road on. day had no
cars Tor mines. Some shipments reach
"a destination last week. u month late.
Hattimore's trade IS frozen to !. stand
sun Iolcdo's congestion IS appalling.
me only satisfaction is high prices.
Every ccal.r suffers Tremendous strain
and awful smashing by excited train
cFe"s. Rolling stock will b. junk
by spring Everybody antIcipatin-
9trtNe Conservatives seek connections
WIN sections immune against strikes. -
iAus far this year sixteen securities
nave Decn added TO the stock Exchange
list. and OF these thirteen are common
and preferred stocks and bonds of tho
reorganized American Tobacco Com
pan%, and its constituent companies.
They supplied total of Sl7, 900 Oop
o. the grand total OF $4,000 600 pa
value, OF the new securities Except
for them the first six weeks OF the
year would have Witnessed the small
est listing % new securities for any
corresponding period in more than a
decade.
All of the exchanges IN New York
and other Northern cities VIII be
closed Oh Monday. which Is Lincoln $
birthday, and a legal holiday mere and
IN most of the other Northern states.
The day is not observed as 4 holiday
in Massachusetts, but the Boston Stock
Exchange will be closed In Chicago
the exchanges will be closed no, only
on Lincoln's and Washington's birth
days. but on February 81, primary day.
In shsnEton there have been in
troduced the pernnial bills against
cotton futures and IN Albany line Old
bills against the New y ork stock Ex-
change have bobbed up again. One OF
the cotton bills takes UP the old con-
trovcrsy over the grading of cotton,
providing that only the governments
standard grades shall be dealt in on
contracts on the exchanges. The other
makes II a crime 10 buy or sell cotton
futures without intention 10 make de-
livery or take Up the actual cotton.
The stock exchange bills AT Albany are
the old familiar ones, prohibiting
trading on marlin and snort selling.
The embryo Legislators DO not ap-
pear to appreciate that many of the
stock exchange houses refuse TO per-
nit trading on margins. Henry Clews
settled that point when the Hughes
commission was Investigating stock
exchange practices. He rather startled
his customers one day BY declaring
abruptly that there would be no more
buying OF stocks on margins in has
house However" ne added, dryly,
Il shall be pleased to extend credit TO
any OF you who may desire TO pur-
chase"
Bank clearings last week were much
less than in the previous week. hut
compared favorsbly with tho CORE
spending week last year. The total
was s3,2i2, 100000. as compared with
So. 553, 900, 900 in the previous week and
So 25,000,000 in the corresponding week
last year. The ratio of increase over
last year was 81 per cent. These
cities reported increases: New York.
SIS per cent; Boston, 81 per cent; chi
caEo l0.1 per cent; New Orleans, ID
per cent. ST Louis reported a decrease
of 81 per cent
Thc pric. OF bar silver advanced dur
ing tile week TO the highest point since
1907. The demand from India for
coinage purposes is the principal rea-
son for the strength of the metal. An
other cause is the circumstance that
not many of the copper mines. have
been worked to full capacity lately.
SevcraI OF the copper companies arc
large producers of silver Anaconda,
for instance was form srly known as n
silver mine rather than a copper mine
The strngth Of the market for the
metal IS accordingly helpful TO some
of the copper companies as well as to
those smelling companies which arc
in tluential in the silver market or the
world.
Wall Street did not take very seri-
ouslv the suggestion that because the
Hartman estate had determined to eX-
ercise direct control of the FORTUNES
of the United States Express Company
it would merge that concern with
Wells, Fargo g Co, In which the Har-
riman people arc likewise heavily IN
terested. AS express mon put Il to-
day. "the people In the express bus
mess are not all fools" 1t would GER
tainly seem most inopportune time
for such move With the Interstate
Commerce Commission investigating
away, the opportunity tor merger did
not appear very bright to those few
express men who could be Induced to
say anything at all to-day. The legal
difficulties were emphasized even more
than has become the custom when
speaking OF mergers.