The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

would be greatly pleased to have the
vexatious rate question answered with
out unnecessary furthen delay. The
stock market felt better
The close confederation of bank ers,
millionaire brokers and free and inde-
pendent promoters is going rapidly
through a process of disinte grafton.
designations of millionaires. multimil-
lionaires and rich and retired notables
from the directories are daily becoming
of greater frequency. Perpetual in
terchange of business secrets is a call
ing that is losing caste. Its practi-
TONERS of note are taking unusually
early foreign trips and their depar
lures are very frequently signalized
by the publication of lists of resigna-
tions from accommodation memberships
on powerful and strangely affiliated
banks, brokerage Offices, promoters and
absurdly opulent half idlers. 1t was
not regarded as a violation of the
rules of proprietary for close asso-
ciates in midday lunch clubs, of which
there are many in the downtown Sec
tion, to indulge in sacred interchange
of business condolences. Bitter COM
plants have been whispered about the
financial section concerning these vio-
lations of the unwritten law, and in
several recent cases the newspapers
have given space to resignation lists
tisit SGT tllt loIS utS VI lHOSe III INC
know" to wagging industriously-in a
whisper.
Every tub on its own bottom is
the problem that Is recognized as
growingly influential in the financial
district To be in official association
with rich and influential fellow citi-
zens was considered a high honor, and
a few made 1t their sacred business to
enjoy this honor in as many organiza-
tions and clubs could be arranged
for. Intrinsically there is nothing I'M
proper in the position of dictatorship
in corporation of good repute but the
practice has been abused and those
who have gone far with IL have laid
themselves open to criticism. In some
cases it is regarded as a covert did to
ask a man of standing If he is still a
director in this that or the other or
ganization. or why he has resigned.
The atmosphere of the financial district
is certainly enduring a needed process
of publication.
Attorney General McReynolds has
made rapid advance lately in the es-
TEEN of the financial district When
he first "set up shop" and for some
time thereafter he was accused of hav-
ing a mania for the annihilation of
trusts" and the persecution of pro-
moters and broker specialists in the
business The street was full of gos-
SIP ABOUT the IninSS McfNeyiloiuS was
going to do personally with this or that
noted person. Not the mere busting of
a trust would satisfy the appetite of
the chief of the department of justice.
Rage in influential quarters was eX-
cited and 1t was not long before it
was known by the entire reading pub
1ic that the stories were atrociously
false that attributed to the Attorney
General purpose to persecute tnot
prosecute) unusually rich and promi-
nent men for their participation in
successful enterprises of large calibre.
In this connection it may be said, re-
peated and universally belieyed, that
Mr. McReynolds principal ambition is
to purify Business practices, elevate
the moral tone of the population. 1t
Is not a desire to punish men who
amassed fortunes with freedom of ac-
ton then considered honorable but pos
sbly not rigidly discreet from the
viewpoint of specially favored saints
rth