The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-13

street has been strangely Indifferent to
the chances of great strike that
might blockade the railroads east OF
the Mississippi and tie up passenger
and freight traffic tight as a wedge.
The mob impression is that the 10000
threatening worxmen may win out. So
far as can be observed, the railroad
arrangements feel much the same way
and though they appear to anticipate a
setback they are seemingly reconcied.
The deep down hope is that the fight
and It's result will be an object lesson,
profound in effect on popular opinion.
The big railroad men are genuinely
mixed in mind whether to fight a strilx e
to finish and give the public an exam
pie of real labor tyranny and iptoler-
ance, or submit TO further confiscation
OF earnings. Which would be best Is
an open question: even at this elev-
enth hour, and great variety of opin-
ion is quietly voiced by leading finan-
ciers and men of affairs who are iden-
tilted with the financial management
of the nations transportation inter
ests. The points of doubt and risk are
as clearly understood by the workmen
as by the eamanagements. and informa-
ton con54S from reliable sources that
| If they could have acted free handed
the wage issue would not nave been
pressed at this juncture 1t would
seem that the labor union religion to
stick to the leaders, outweighs every
other consideration. The situation is
hourly becoming more interesting and
| may be the ruling feature of the stock
market next Week-and many subse-
quent weeks.
Big Men All Gone
The street is almost barren of finan-
cial leviathans. Those who remain in
their city or suburban homes keen
very quiet and do nothing in the stock
| market to attract notice or influence
prices appreciably. John d. Rockefel-
ler takes an occasional little run out
of town, but he finds his greatest hap
piness in the seclusion of his wonder
full palace near Tarrytown, 40 minutes
ride up the Hudson by automobile.
He has just celebrated his seventy
fourth birthday. He is the largest
holder of American securities, but if
he speculates nobody knows 1t. He is
supposed to have made not less than
l$200,000,000 in oil since the oil trust
was put through farcical dissolution
| under government direction. There is
now ill-natured talk of trying to null
llify the deal on the ground that the
actual ownership and management re-
main as before. Mr.. Rockefeller moves
along serenely under the storm clouds,
seemingly unconscious that anything
has been done or may be done out of
the ordinary. George w. Perkins
slipped off to Europe 10 days ago "un-
beknownst to the alert marine re-
porters of the city press, and to the
public. His Decentralization on the
other side was also rubber-shoed. Nor
man B. Real was two months in a hos
pital and has only just sufficiently re-
covered to stand removal to his splen-
did country home near Thompson.
Conn. He expects to be completely re-
stored to health by fall and good for
20 years on top of his 72 years Mr..
Real has not been in the market for
a year and probably will never again
be in the active list
Nobody ever inquiries concerning the
whereabouts or operations of Messrs.
Stillman, Frick, william Rockefeller or
Thomas Fortune Ryan, all multi-mil-
lionaires and in times past lightning
players in the market, but now sup
posedly inert. Mr.. Frick, whose cam
paigns were frequently in hundreds of
thousands of shares at a clip, has van
! ished from the scene of stock market
activity. He was speculative asso-
ciate of William Rockefeller and f. I'll
| Hartman. The 1907 panic put a crimp
| in him, but he pulled out whole Bar
ney Barucii, for 10 years g star per
| former among the speculative heavy
weights, has turned his back on the
stock exchange and Is about to start
for Europe. He tells the writer he Ii
J out of the game for good and will
stay out. This will be a great disap-