The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-09

| lld1HS places and TO dpdIloOh- I'll
! ephemeral and temporary methoos Oh
making investment which have charac-
| terized capital in this country Tor the
past four years.
What This Means.
| This unquestionably means that with
| the full sway of confidence whose reign
seems now to be beginning the greater
undertakings and larger opportunities
| for railway and industrial development
| in the United States will be accommo-
| dated by a sufficient flow of capital
In the next place, the subscription to
the United States Steel corporation
bonds must be accepted as proof that
no small part. of the public has con-
hdence that this corporation will not
be seriously affected by any action
brought by the federal government
upon the allegation that the corpora
ton has been organized and is now
directed in violation of the Sherman
antitrust law. This feeling of itself
! makes it. clear that reaction from
the excessive and, at times, even hys-
terical agitation aimed at big business
or so-called trusts, has begun. If bust
ness men are beginning to see with
clearer eyes and better understanding
what their obligations to the laws are
on the other hand the public appears
also to have better understanding than
heretofore of the fact that the material
prosperity of the United States is de-
com bination of capital and brains, pro-
vided that combination reflects moth
ing but fair and honorable business
purposes.
A Lesser Factor.
One of the minor factors discover
ed in the manner in which the Steel
corporation bonds We're marketed is
the favorable judgment given to that
financing apparently by the securities
market. OF course, there have been
SuSDiCiOnS. tracG9 h1p ni0iGIl0
which is inevitable characteristic |
of the stock market experiences. thatj
powerful United States Steel capital |
in view of the offending of the Steel |
corporation bonds, determined so to |
manipulate the market that the sale |
of these bonds would have no depress-
ing effect upon the stock.
All the superficial Indications, how
ever, should justify the impression
that the manner in which the market
responded to this Offering, SO far as
the steel corporation stock was con-
cerned, was in part, at least, and very
likely entirely, due to the judgment
that the policy now adopted by the |
Steel corporation of capitalizing some |
of its expenditures is based upon the
soundest business judgment. How |
ever. what the effect upon the quota |
lions for the Steel corporations stock
may have been on account of issu-
ing of a block of $50, 500, 900 in bonds |
is a matter of trifling consequence in |
comparison with the broader features |
and more important factors contained
within this transaction.
The Ever Lurking Apprehension.
There is one phase of the steel and |
iron industry of which the public has
little knowledge and yet it serves to |
explain in part why the securities of
the railway companies are regarded |
with higher favor on the whole, than |
are the securities of the corporations |
whose product is, iron and steel COM |
modities.
There can be no radical change in
the science of railway operation and |
management, speaking now purely |
from the scientific and material point |
of view. Nothing now conceivable can
displace the railroad Whatever the |
possibilities of the airship are. they |
can never bring aerial transportation /
into real competition with the rail- |
roads. There is, therefore, an ele- |
world There may be changes due to
political agitation, but the methods of
building and operating railroads will
always remain the same.
In the world of industry there is.
on the other hand, the ever present
posi- bility that science, chemistry, |
physics, some new utilization of law II
of nature, may impair or even COM
pletely ruin methods of manufacture
now prevalent. It used to be said of
the late H. o. Havemeyer, president
of the so-called sugar trust, that he
believed his business strategy was
equal TO any competitive OdIlle anu
that he was confident that, conditions
of sugar production and manufacture
remaining what they were in his day,
he would always stand in equal rank
with the masters of the sugar bust
ness. But with him there was one
lurking apprehension-some
master of chemistry, some great au-
hority of physics. might discover
charine matter from the raw pro Ii
luct and invent apparatus which Ii
would utilize that discovery and would
De able to reduce the cost of refining u
20 greatly as to put the old refiners le
)ut of business. For that reason he Ii
zept his own chemists constantly en- y
0loyed, in the hope that if there were II
discoveries his men would make them.
sib1e discoveries and the perfect1ng Il
and patenting of apparatus by which Is
he discoveries could be utilized in the
manufacture of steel and iron prod liz
lcts is constantly in the minds of the III
great managers of the business. al
hough it is a subject rarely referred
.nts of Bessemer and the lat Id
Iayley illustrate what is meant
" the term lurking apprehen-
ion" Now. while it is not prob =
Lble, it is within the possibilities that +
ome master mind in the field of sci
nee may do for the steel industry
What Bessemer did. What would be p
he effect of that upon the United c
states Steel corporation or upon any q
ther of the great corporations of the :
ron and steel commodity? Il
This it is, probably, which will al x
Ways serve to make the securities OF :
n industrial corporation on the whole r
ess favorably regarded than are the
ecurities of the railroad companies
t was a mastery of new principles in
he production of iron and steel which
ave tho Carnegie company its pre-
minence Yet there was always the ]
anger that some new master of the i
cience might discover the way to :
I,o CorTaOja ifSI