Life — April 25, 1901 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

\YHAKHSPHARE—great genius that he was—might possibly have written Hamlet" successfully and left Hamlet t. Not even Shakespeare, with all his znius, could write successfully of inance and leave out the name of J. Plerpont Morgan. The constant repeti- tion of Mr. Morgan’s name may become as tUresome to New Yorkers as that of Aristides to the Athenians, but there is no ostracism possible for Mr, Morgan, even if any one wished it. The truth is that no one wishes it. The usual grum- ble of anarchy and the envious criticism of the unsuccessful may be occasionally heard, but the intelligent and thinking element in the community has so far been unable to discover that the great financial accomplishments of Mr. Mor- gan’s ability to plan and execute contain within themselves anything but prospec- tive benefit for the owners of the prop- erties in which he has been most active. $ 3 3 IS purchase this week of the Gains- I borough Duchess and of a very ex- pensive thoroughbred collie may give color to the idea that Mr. Morgan is putting his recent profits into cats and dogs. It should be remembered that they are not of the Wall Street breed, and that from his point of view he Is doubtless getting value received. And his apparent extravagance is not likely to bring him to the poorhouse, 3 3 NCERTAINTY has marked the movements of the high priced stocks during the past week, although the final result of the seesawing of prices is that they have fairly held their own. In the lower priced securities there have been marked advances. Hot air has been pumped into a number of them very freely and they have stood the treatment well, $ 8 $ VER five hundred millions of actual gold acked up in the United States Treasury! There's no necessity to figure how many times around the earth these coins would reach if placed edge to edge, nor how many columns as high the Washington monument they would make if piled on top of one an- other. A sufficient realization of the sig- nificance of this hoard of metal may be had when it is known that only once before in the world’s history has such an accumulation been known. This was in the War-chest of despotic and im- perialistic Russia before the trans- Siberian railway was under way. $ }HIS pile of gold is a sort of monu- ment to American ignorance of finance. With public confidence at high- water mark, the stacking up of over a hundred and fifty millions more than the Treasury really needs to be very well on the safe side is not much of a menace. But let a money scare come along and we may kick ourselves for not having provided a legal and speedy way of com- pelling this accumulation into the chan- nels of business. The way will be found, of course, as it always has been, but the trouble is that the relief usually comes too late and after panic has done its worst. Poor Secretary Gage 1s doing what he may by comparatively trifling purchases of Government bonds at ex- orbitant prices, but the money paid for them is only a drop from the flood of in- flowing gold. 3 $ 3 EANWHILE we go on buying and selling—mostly buying—without a glance at the big yellow mountain in the Treasury. Some time when money rates take a quick jump over night and prices consequently drop to the margin-calling point we may wonder why we didn’t make our Senators and Congressmen de- vote less time to securing appointments for their relatives and constituents and more to a consideration of a very im- portant question. $ $ $ JHE career of Colorado Fuel & Iron this week has been amusing. It has been up and down like a float on a fishline with a good big fish on the hook. The fish in this case is the public and the wily fisherman is the Hon. John W. Gates, of American Steel & Wire and “Give the boys a chance” fame. The Waldorf Association of Second-story Men are also said to be interested in the sport. Later on there will be a fish din- ner, at which the fish will be present, but not in the capacity of guest. At its conclusion the fish will surely be amidst those present. $ $ FFICIAL secrecy, which is seldom necessary and which ts at the bot- tom of half the deviltry in Wall Street, has characterized the Burlington-Great Northern-Northern Pacific deal up to date. Long directors’ meetings have been held and adjourned with the state- ment to outsiders, “Nothing done.” The new rumor is that 200 in 4 per cent bonds is to be paid for the Burlington stock, which is better than 220 in 3%s, and should make anything under 200 cheap for the present stock. $ $ $ JHE coppers are having a lively time of it nowadays. This applies not only to Superintendent Devery’s cop- pers, but to Amalgamated and its asso- clated properties. Of these Anaconda has not yet had the hot air injected, and is said by its friends to be a purchase under fifty-five. $ $ $ TT isn’t charitable to rejoice in the mis- fortunes of one’s neighbors, but in matters of commerce John Bull has always been so arrogant and dictatorial that the sad straits he has fallen in com- mercially, contrasted with our own booming prosperity, has a grain of sat- isfaction to those who have had to bear with his insolence in days gone by, and especially in those parts of the world where he was in full control. The shrink- age in consols represents a loss of half a billion dollars, and other stocks In pro- portion. Our brand of imperialism, financially, at least, seems more suc- cessful than Great Britain's. 3 $ $ HE labor unions have come up against a new problem in the United States Steel Corporation. Unity of action among workingmen becomes more difficult in almost geometrical ratio with the increase of the number of men involved. The new aggregation of cap!i- tal involves such a variety of interests, so much territory and so many men that the seriousness of a strike becomes a thing most thoroughly to be consid- ered before being undertaken. In the trouble at McKeesport the unions came against the few monster for the first time, and the labor leaders very wisely concluded to size him up a little more accurately before starting a fight. OUR Uncle Russell Sage has his eye glued to the barometer, but sees few signs of the stormy financial weather which suits his purposes best. He is primarily a money merchant, and that commodity hasn't been worth much lately. A. Lamb, Watt Street, Tuurspay, April 18.