Show AH i THE GREAT SLUMP in steel stocks A 1 turns turna out t to have been thoroughly juStifiable At a meeting of the di dl rectors held OB Tuesday the usual quarterly of 1 4 per cent on the preferred stock wac wa and the dividend on the common stock passed The showing erf of earnings for laM hut r of as aa com euni compared pared with the same period in lIe is isi I i During the lest of h sear ar the t tracts tit et let wars wera W liO Ifer the last months Iff 1 3 the th net earnings were i a decrease de of not far from 58 SS I cent The Ike drop to in was wis wasa a y enough foreseen on the New NewYork Newyork York stock exchange and It was ws but sacral that the tle steel stores shares should depreciate heavily in ln value And yet it te Is rather difficult to understand why there should have been beenS Jach I an enor enormous moss lIt i Is f the theS fires S r 8 r ioe Wd of course coute no fo good d trust would pad its earnings figures especially at a trae h hea the public nm b gr g cordially invited to invest in the stock But if the IMS figures We iyo net pad padded dad ded how is the Showing fur for 1 to be beacco accounted acco for lor Abundant statistics are at hand to show that nore rail railroads roads reads were n 19 than in 1912 To build railroads you must have ste steel l rails and to get steel rails rafla you must go te to the ti l taunt t if i you buy bU them in this country Were the new lines built without rails or were the rails purchased abroad In the line of structural iron and steel the activity was marked also f Cumbers R of build buildings buildIngs ings requiring steal bAit girders and framework were con const st sti dr s war wor Nevertheless l the e of o the United States Steel corporation tIe the steer steel trust were notified on Jan 1 t that their wages be reduced to tm an extent it will save ive tile the upwards 01 of between the sears eals and the years end This should give h Mers of the corn com common cornmon mon sto Jc hope for a small dividend but it is most for fo the em cut of the trust |