New-York tribune., 1918-01-10

Many columns have been written
setting forth the Wall Street opinion
of the Presidents statement Of war
and peace aims, and the effects
thereof on stock prices. Wall
Street really has no opinion on the
subject worth recording 1t is
merely confused. Besides, peace
talk is not as important as market
factor as is generally supposed
No one is even sure whether the
actual restoration of peace would
be bullish or bearish. At the close
yesterday prices were on about the
same level at which they stood when
the Presidents address was deliv-
cred. The principal result of the
episode is that the market demon
strated afresh that the liquidation
! which brought about crisis short
time ago is all over. Otherwise
prices would not have recovered as
they did.
Announcement that railroad rates
are to be increased and that there
is to be a general readjustment of
the present crazy rate structure
should be encouraging to stockhold-
ers. If the roads are returned to
private control after the war, they
should reap great benefits from a
rate system which would make all
freight and passenger traffic pay its
way, while the increases proposed
to be granted will leave the carriers
in a much better position than they
would be were the government to
make no such adjustments. One Of
the principal reasons why the shares
of British railroads have fallen so
much is that wages and other costs
I have increased enormously, whereas
rates have remained stationary.
Unless rates are increased before
the British roads are turned back
to their owners, they may face
bankruptcy.
One who lives in Kansas and
raises wheat is a farmer. One who
lives in Tennessee and raises cotton
is planter. Now there is a great
difference between these pursuits.
1t is not so much the occupational
difference, which after all is slight,
or the difference in the crops. The
important distinctions are geo.
graphical and political, for raising
cottonsin the South has this advan-
tage: The product is inviolable.
The law of supply and demand may
be set aside in relation to wheat, or
copper or coal, but cotton is i'm
mune. 1t must not be interfered
with, because the South might re-
sent interference. The planter
must be pampered, now that cotton
prices are at zenith, just as he was
some three years ago when nadir
was touched. In the fall of 1914,
when cotton was selling for less than
7 cents a pound, and the outlook
seemed as gloomy as it we'll could
be, great money pool was formed
with the Endorsement of the Ad-
ministration, to make loans on the
staple, so that planters might be
spared the pain Of selling at loss
1t was even seriously proposed that
the government should buy the
whole cotton crop at price which
would insure the growers not only
against loss, but of profit. AS ii
happened, none of these things were
necessary, for conditions changed
almost over night, and cotton was
soon out Of the depths. Since then
the law of supply and demand, as
! sisted by preposterous imitation, has
been working more kindly toward
the cotton interests, and tenderness
for the planter has therefore as
sumed a new aspect. Cotton is
worth about 33 cents a pound to-
day, with short crop and big de
mand, and talk of fixing. the price
is almost smothered. The argu
ments advanced against such actor
are hardly worthy Of serious con
sideration. Here is a typical one
: from a recent issue of "The Wal
Street Journal:
Those that object to price fixing
for cotton generally state that it
would meet serious objections from
the farmer, unless all commodities
that have to be bought by the rural
population are also made stable in
price, and that would include besides
food articles almost everything in
household goods, cattle and ma
chinery.
Of course, it was unnecessary tt
take these things into consideration
when fixino nrica FOR what ha