The Washington times., 1915-05-09

The news Of the sinking Of the Lusi-
tania with the possibility Of this coun-
try becoming involved in the European
war. and the resultant general slump In
all the securities which have been most
active during the last few weeks. has
nut a decided crimp In the general op-
timistic outlook, and investors are TO-
day anxiously awaiting the declaration
by the United States Government OF
what action 1t will take. Until some
| indication is made as to the probable
outcome of the incident, 1t is expected
that there will be q general tendency
| to hold of
Those more optimistically inclined
| take comfort In the fact that. despite
| the panic which rcigned on the New
York Stock Exchange Friday afternoon
when the news Of the Lusitanias sink
Ing was first reeeived .dny XirtHa vest.rdav M ' IN
face of the additional news of large loss
Of life.
| Security issues by American corpora
tions during the last four months nave
Of 317s, sos, 900 The railroads In partcu-
lar have showed a strong tendency TO-
ward reducing their operating expenses
| to meet obligations rather than issue
additional securities. 1t is a slgnincant
fact that not one share Of railroad stock
was fioated during April. Railroad bor-
rowings in April. which totaled sloa,o
go, 900, show a decrease Of Slo. GOO
from April. 1914
Railroads have systematically tried 70
| follow the program forecast at the
opening Of the year In the matter OF
| taking up short-date notes and issuing
in their stead long-term bonds. Inc
notable exception to this rule last month
| ,t~ta Ia 90 =
900 600 notes to replace s35. 900 900 similar
hoped that regular bonds could be put
out, but this had to be temporarily
| postponed The fact that the Baltimore
and Ohio offering was absorbed within
two hours reflects the keenness of the
demand for high-grade short-term Sc
| curities.
An increase of $50 per mile. or A Bit
per cent, was made by, the railways OF
the United states In February over Feb
ruary, 1914. according to figures compil-
ed by the Bureau of Railway Econom-
les. 1t is pointed out. however, that
February last year was an exceedingly
| poor month for the railroads.
| A large number of freight cars stand
ing idle on the Pennsylvania tracks
! and in shops, were called into use ir
| April. Nevertheless, the system could
have handled much more traffic than Il
|
| fact that on April 30 there were 63. 4S
shop and good order cars stored away
This was a decrease for the month Of
| l4,S07.
According to figures compiled by En-
gineering News, the building trade
gained ground in April. Seventeen cite!
| in the Eastern States showed a gain o
| 23 per cent in the estimated cost OF
| operations from plans filed during the
month as compared with the same
month last year. In the same cities II
the first four months of the year the
gain was about IA per cent.
Considerable interest has been arous
ed among those interested In coppo
stocks by the announcement that th
Amalgamated Copper Company. which
controls through stock ownership tn
Anaconda Copper Mining Company
will ask stockholders at the June meet
ing to dissolve the company.
The reason. as outlined in letter sen
to shareholders by President John d
Ryan, Is that the restrictive effects o
the Seven Sisters" laws in New Jer
sey. where the Amalgamated was in
corporated, are such that the director
think II best to wind up the company
: affairs. 1t Is proposed to distribute t
holders OF Anna gamated shares tw
I shares of Anaconda stock from tn
treasury to each share OF Amalgamate