The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-03
Shows People Still Believe in
Industrial Investment.
Greater Development and Ex-
penditureS Are Coming.
AGITATION DOESN'T STOP IT
Prosperity Following Reaction
to Boost Earnings.
No Fear That Courts VIII Dis
solve Steel Corporation.

New York, April at is fact
which has not escaped the attention
of careful students of the peculiar
business conditions now prevailing
that notwithstanding the agitations
unfavorable to big business and in
spite of antitrust prosecutions brought
by the government and nOtWithstand-
ing the dissolution of the Standard Oil
company and of the American Tobac-
co company and the preSumable dis
solution, either voluntary or enforced,
of the International Harvester com
pany, nevertheless the aggregations of
capital in large amounts invested in
industrial securities continue apace-
This disposition, of course, is not
so conspicuous as was the case ten or
twelve years ago when the country
seemed to be possessed with a hys-
terra of industrial promotions. The
epigrammatic description given by the
late Thomas B. Reed when speaker
of the house of representatives, This
is a billiOn-dollar country" may soon
be applicable to the Industrial corpor-
atoms of the country. Attention has
been called to the fact that of the cor
poration securities listed in the stock
exchange the capitaliZationS of ten
corporations are in excess of one
hundred millions. These statistics, of
course, do not include the railway
companies of the United States. In
dustrial capitalization has recently
been increasing rapidly and this serves
of business is not to be checked. In
the development of the country it is
inevitable that there be large concen-
tration of capital in various industrial
enterprises.
It is presumed that with the revival
of business prosperity along great and
broad lines there will certainly come
large increase in the number of cor
porationS capitalized in excess of a
hundred million dollars. Who a few
years ago would have dreamed that
the industrial corporation which in
the year 1912 would stand second to
the United States Steel company in
the amount of capital would be the
telephone company? With the growth
of this industry and the imperative de-
mands which are coming from many
parts of the west for Geographic ser
vice, it is reasonable to presume that
within the next four or five years the
telephone company'S capital will have
increased from the amount now out
standing-three hundred and twenty
four millions-to at least four hun
dred millions. A rough estimate h
been made of what the total capitali-
zation of this company will be when
it has met the requirements of the en-
tire country for its services. The fig
ure has been fixed at five hundred
million dollars, and in view of the
growth of this corporation within a
few years that seems to be not an I'M
reasonable estimate.
The United States Steel Corporation.
Leaving out of all consideration the
view of spectators and of those who
closely scrutiniZe the stock exchange
activities, but who do not pay much
attention to any other features of
our business life, the recent action of
the United States Steel corporation is
looked upon as containing a very i'm
pOrtant and suggestive lesson in the