The Washington times., 1912-01-07

In large part, to the uncertainty which
| surrounds the general situation, arising
chiefly out Of political considerations.
These, perhaps, have been accumulated
somewhat Of late by the reported ma
neuvering OF candidates. or their sup
porters, for the nomination, and also.
Of course, by the reassembling of Con-
gress after the holiday recess. The leg
| islative program Is not calculated to en-
courage confident operations of spccu-
lative nature. In this respect, however.
II is doubtful II features which bear d.
rectly upon the financial district. such
as the possible resumption Of the Steel
and Sugar Investigations or the PROS
pective investigations of the Money
. trust" or the Harvester trust, exert Is
much influence as features which may
AFFECT the country in general
Perhaps, when all the investigators
get to- work again, and more particu-
larly II the inquiry into the Money
financial district may find these to be
| sources OF unsattlement. but at present
Wall Street seems to feel more than
anything else the effect on the public
of possible change in the Administra-
ton and the restraining influence of
impending tariff legislation. In many
quarters the fear is expressed that Con-
gress Will be unable to accomplish
much, II anything, with the tariff at
this session, and that the question may
itself and thereby aggravate a situation
already disturbed.
Political Considerations.
Politics seems destined to play an in
creasingiy prominent part In the consid-
erations of the country from now on.
In addition to the>tarifr, which is the
chief bugbear Of the commercial AMI
financial interests, there are, or are
likely to be. many other subjects OF
Importance before Congress, such as
ments to the interstate commerce
act and to the Sherman antitrust act.
and Wall street fairly gasped the other
day on reading that the President is
sages to Congress. dealing with as many
subjects. or course. in many of the
above measures the financial district Is
vitality Interested. but II seems wholly
unlikely that Congress can deal with all
! of them on this occasion II II is to adj
journ In time for the national conven-
tons, the first of which is set for June
is. In fact. as Wall Street now sees It.
The country has before II a continuous
performance in legislation and politics
UP TO the November elections.
1t may be inferred from the foregoing
that the theories which obtained only
little while ago-that the Congress
sional session would be mild, do
These ideas were based largely on the
attitude of Congressman IIttleton in
opposing the continuance Of the Steel
trust investigation and the reassurins
remarks OF Mr.. Underwood or the de-
STABILITY of minimizing the disturbing
influences of legislation upon business.
But the hopes of the banking element
that the House majority would pursue
conservative policy In order TO win
the support OF commercial interests arc
practically abandoned. chiefly because
the legislative program itself is full of
controversial potentialities. appealing to
Republicans as well as Democrats, and
through them all runs a constant cur
rent of political activity. This supplies
an incentive to men or parties nraneuv-
ering for office to seek advantages or
manufacture political capital for use IN
the national campaign.
New Developments.
Aside from political considerations.
the developments of the week were OF a
generally favorable character. They
| were, however. for the most part OF a
| routine nature, dealing with railway
earnings, corporations reports. and the
general tendencies Of industry, and of
| the money market. OF the statements
Of railway earnings II may be said that
the exhiuidon of the week was a
divided presentment-that is. certain i'm
portant systems reported increases.
while others reported declines. and the
! returns as a whole revealed no general