The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-07
BETTER FEELING ON
 STOCK EXCHANGE Outside Public Beginning to Show More Interest BROKERS BUOYANT Increased Prosperity of Railroads in South Is Given Much Favor
 able Comment in Fi-
 nancial Circles
By PRESTON C. ADAMS

mess TOT ln6 pIOheTS etlu lltS NiiA b' able in time to catch up on back ex- penses, and make a little money.
 With the average broker the pTos- perity of the country IS not marked by railroad earnings, the output of factories, or the size of the crops, but by the volume of sales on the stock exchange. This is natural, for it is on this feature that the individual pros perity of the broker depends
 We must do 10 1000 shares day to meet our expenses" said the heac of one of the big wire houses," but for months we did not do 5000 shares. h. deed, one day we ran as low as 1000 shares, and during the first two hour of that day our total -rders consisted of 200 shares. We have been doing over 12o00 shares all week, and one day our total ran over 15,000 shares. It will take a long time, however, for us to catch up. Most of the other Wall street firms who do a commission business have been In the same fix. The public, however, is coming into the market and we are getting buy ing orders from all parts of the cvun- try Selling orders are coming In, too, some people cannot resist the tempta- tion to take the first profit they have seen in months Many of our custom CTS have missed the market and are waiting for the reaction that every body expects but which has not come The peculiar part about this market is that nobody fin Wall street seems to believe in it. The professionals have all been wrong and have had to cover short contracts repeatedly at a loss. They believe that the rise has been too rapid and have been playing TOT a three or four point break. The out side element, however. Is buying with confidence, and the conclusion is in- evitable that 1t has seen a change in general conditions which the profess sional element appears not to have de- tected''
 That fairly indicates the Wall street view of the situation.
 Really one of the remarkable fea- lures of the industrial situation has been the way in which the great cot ton crop of 1911-12 has been absorbed.
 One-third more cotton has been ex- ported to date this season than a year ago, on a crop which is just one third larger Exporting is, therefore. not out of proportion to last year 5 movement, and prices have been just about one-third lower than last year.
 
 The report that the interstate com merce commission may take meas uses as result of recent accidents on eastern trunk lines to compel the roads to slow down the speed of their fast passenger trains has been read with some satisfaction in Wall street. In many conservative quarters 1t has always been contended that the rail- roads incurred an unnecessary ex- i,. ,nlr ft,rr they did this out of pride rather than for sound business reasonss and that neither from their own point of view nor from that of their patrons did the results justify the expense and risk incurred Having adopted a high speed standard, the railroads could rot voluntarily take a step that would have appeared retrograde; but If the interstate commerce commission com pels them to do so it may be to the benefit of the transportation companies to comply with the order.
 In connection with this question n recent statement recently made by President Farrell of the United States Steel corporation, is interesting. He says:
 "The public demands, and rightly, that railroad transportation shall be safe and that rails shsll not break. I am absolutely convinced that if the rail- roads are to accomplish this they must be prepared to face greater wear of steel rails. In other words, under the severe and often unknown demands of modern railroad traffic, choice must be made between safety and wearing qual- ity in steel rails.
 Beginning about 1890, the railroads of the United States began to ask for higher carbon in steel rails in order 10 secure greater wear; and the rail mak CTS unwisely, and many times under pro- test made the quality of steel de- manded.
 Tt is true that many of these hard rails never break. but the liability To breakage is much greater than in the old time softer steel
 "If safety is to be the first consid ar- alton, lower carbon, softer steel would seem to be necessary. With such steel the various unavoidable defects or vari- ations of commercial rails would be less dangerous.
 T believe I am correct in statin x that harder steel is used in rails in the United States than in any other country. and yet our wheel loads and train loads are much greater than those on foreign roads
 In my opinion, the proper course for railroads to pursue is to use a heavier rail of softer steel. making safety the prime object and getting the maximum wear they can under such conditions. ''
 Much faster than some of us are aware of are we coming to master our export problems. Formerly one of our chief handicaps in the race for neutra | markets with other nations was their willingness to give much longer credit than our own exporters felt safe in do- ing, said commission merchant the other day in speaking of a contract which he succeeded .i getting In an unusual quarter of th- foreign market.
 But even that difficulty" he con tinued. lis being overcome, in one way or another To begiA. with. the com mission houses are being better capf- talized with working resources to bridge tie gap. The German or British trad . CT may sell on anything from three to six months time, or even a year to the buyer who has an annual sale of his product to pay his bills. Against that the American exporter usually w ants cash. Now the commission house leoks after the outer end of the bus mess. or the exporters combine to cre- ate a department, as a joint firm to do that part of their work; or, like the big trusts, they crea-- an exporting arm of the service which masters the situation as a necessity of securing an outlet for their goods. regardless of the state of the domestic market All We need now is banks and ships-and master ly men 10 man them"
 The increased prosperity of the south Tern railways reflects the fact that the 1south has just produced a cotton crop that has no precedent Tn volume and that will unquestiona.-y be consumed very promptly at profitable prices by