The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-15
Over Private Wires
Shannon & Co.'s Letter

New York, May 1.-The stock market has again run into high volume, evincing clearly the continued speculative temper which prevails, and the great momentum which the market has acquired As we have recently commented upon, the mar ket of late has shown broader and bet ter tendency with more interest in the rails, steels and coppers, and not such a furious chasing of specialtes. Steel stocks today especially have acted well, taking their cue from the report yesterday that the railway administration was asking for bids on 100000 tons of rails. There are also indications that there will be better demand soon for structural steel, so that the outlook for the industry is somewhat improved. As for the rails, the buying is based on the belief that Con gress must straighten out the present muddle With the present prevailing temper. the market is likely to continue strong and active. but it would be well to bear in mind that 1t may take some time for industry to get adjusted to a peace footing, and that the process may not be profitable for the current year. If so, in time, this will find reflection in prices.
 Reactionary talk seems to be dying out and not few among the local traders express themselves as having had quite erough of experiments of that sort and
  have reached their relative value with other articles before making further ven- lures based on expectation of break. The present value of a dollar is just about half what it was in pre-war times and on that basis and in view of the poor start the crop is making and the obviously large requirements for another season these prices are by no means out of line. Trade houses continue to buy and wire houses report more interest be- ing shown in the market. The export movement is active and much in excess of last year, the total for today being g 900 bales, with the trade generally looking for a further expansion next month. The theory that foreign coun- tries will not be able to buy seems to be growing weaker. If we are to get back interest and principal on our advances to other nations we shall have to sup ply them with raw materials and buy the finished products from them with con- siderable freedom. It is said that both Georgia and Texas spot firms have been sellers at the high prices today, which is only natural, but the market has ab- sorbed the offerings readily with only small recessions--Post & Flagg.
 R. D. Burgers Letter
 New Orleans, May 14.-The weather re- mains the all important influence in the market for the present, and as the out look is for improvement in climatic con ditions in the interior, values are likely to be depressed temporarily in conse- quence.
 In keeping with general expectations the weekly weather and crop government report was bullish as a whole for awhile, recent rains were beneficial in the south Atlantic states, the rains were detrimen- tai in the Mississippi valley and south. west, particularly in Texas.
 Returns to the census bureau were ia line with general anticipation. Consump. tion, exclusive of linters, in the United States during April was 476000 bales against 444O00 in March and 544,oo0 in April of last year.
 A redeeming feature or the census re- port lies in the fact that American min stocks at the close of April were 430,W' bales less than on corresponding dat. one year ago.
 Another feature was the increase oi active spindles in America of 571,00O dur