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Show I till STREET IN NEfl5M00D Business Prospects Excellent the Country Over, but Speculation Spec-ulation Is Dull. WAITING FOR POLITICAL SITUATION TO SETTLE James J. Hill and Other Cap tains of Industry Take Optimistic Op-timistic View. BY EAiPH EMEBSON. By Leased Wire to The Tribune. NEW YORK, Aug. 20. The fluctuations on the stock exchange this -week were not indicutlve of much. They ivcre the customary cus-tomary movements which have become so common. Until the political situation throughout the United States becomes settled, and only then, will Wall street become normal. By Wall street I mean : b Just that, for, the basic business condl-i condl-i ; . lions throughout the United States are : ft. good. Wall street alone trumpets a note ; ? of alarm, but Wall street Is a nervous i 4.. center and it moves to extremes) As a r p baromctur It only shows the true busi- ( ness conditions when those undcrlvlng conditions are at extremes. i b James J. Hill, chairman of the Groat i ? jl Northern, who came to this city the other y : . V dy. brought with him his usual message i ii. of good cheer. As a constructive financier : : and a student who Is not guided by Wall r. street opinion, Mr. 7 1 111 is qualiiled to ! r apcyk from intimate knowledge. Ho dls- ! sipates the report of coming stringency I r and he points out. In evidence of his f claim, that railroads in the northwest are doing an Increased business. .Mr. Hill . if laughs at the suggestion that tne coun-; coun-; try Is tending towards depression. So 1 t- does Jules Bachc. of the great bond and !)- stock llrm of J. S. Bachc & Co., who ar-vmL ar-vmL rived yesterday from Europe. I f Arthur Stlllwell, president of the Kansas Kan-sas City, Mexico &. Orient railroad, who, like James J. Hill, is a builder and constructive con-structive llnancicr, Is in the city after K an European trip, where he placed a big ! ' bond Issue. Mr. StIIIwell Is a harsh critic f of Wall street and Wall street methods. ' : : lie declares that conditions through the west and southwest could not be better. "But." says he, "through absurd I J. stories set afloat In "Wall street foreign r Investors are being made unduly cau- f ', lions." S I The directors of the Standard Oil com- ! r' pany this week declared the regular quar- t torly dividend of $6 per share on its ; - million shares of stock. John D. Rocke-: Rocke-: l- feller's portion of this dividend Issue Is i ' $1,G20.000. Including the dividend to bo paid In the last quarter of this year, thu ' . standard Oil company from 1S82 to 1910 ' Inclusive will have paid $710,000,000 In tOT dividends. The earnings of the com pany In that lime are estimated to be over ?1, 120,000,000. The company la con-; con-; . stantly increasing Its surplus. aT The report of the American Smelting I company for the year ending April 3 last has been Issued, and It shows 7 per cent earned upon the common stock In thnt period. The report shows the com-pany com-pany had total earnings of 51.546.27S sur-K sur-K Plua over the dividend. Although this Is not as good as 1009. nevertheless It Is fe- satisfactory. The directors of the International Hur-BF Hur-BF roster company will meet on Monday to lake dividend action. In the mattor of dividends there is no Industrial company better fortified than the International Harvester company. TJto earnings of the company this year are expected to show a substantial Increase over those rcportea Inst year. Indications pointed to a $90,000,000 business busi-ness for the year and deducting a 4 per cent dividend from this the sum of 5S.000.-000 5S.000.-000 would be left for surplus. In fact, the revenue Is about 15 per cent on the company's common stock. The report of tho Kansas CHy Southern South-ern railway will appear next month, ana It Is conildently expected (according to statistics already in) that the company will show earnings of between 3 and ! per cent upon the common stock. Tho gross earnings are the largest In the hls-torv hls-torv of the company. The earnings of the Pore Marquette railroad for the llscal year just closing were the highest in the road's history. Tho railroad earned between 4 nnd 5 per cent upon its first preferred, stock. This Is the first time that the road has earned1 a dividend upon Its first preferred pre-ferred stock and It Is now assured that dividends will be disbursed beginning June. 191 1, when cumulative clause goes Into effect Increased business on the Norfolk &. "Western railroad Is leading to a new slock and bond issue for bond lmprovc-. lmprovc-. ments. At the stockholders' meeting in October a 350,000,000 bond Issue will be voted upon. Tho report of the Rock island road shows that the gross earnings for the fiscal fis-cal year of 1910 are the biggest on record, rec-ord, being over S5.000.000 higher than k the gross of any previous year. 1 give thoflo figures to show that actual conditions, broadly speaking. should cause optimistism rather than pessimism. pessim-ism. Aside from tho financial side of the railroad question Improvements are going along us planned In tho winter. Regular passenger service will bo commenced Monday over the Wostcrn Pacific from Salt Lake City to San Francisco. In Texas extensions and rolling stock Improvements Im-provements are under way. Thero seems to be plenlv of money In the Interior and It is doubtful if New York will bo called upon for funds to move crops. . On currency operations during the pres- E enl week N'ew York hanks gained 50,000.- K 000. Returns compiled show that from Bf tho Interior $'.'.077,000 moro cash was Hr received than was shipped whllo from the H sub-treasury there was received 53,319,- 1 000 moro than was paid. Approximately fG.314.000 was received from Interior Institutions, In-stitutions, $3,CS7,000 was shipped to the Interior. In the copper metal field the news of the week was the report of the American Smelting and Refining company. Directors Direc-tors of the Utah Copper company meet for dividend action later In tho month. It Is currently bellcx'cd that tho declaration declara-tion will be 75 cents per share. Tho United States Steel corporation reports re-ports conservative business with plentv of orders, Colorado Fuel and Iron's next annual slatemont which Is In the prlntors' hands for the year ending Juno 30, 1910. will show net earnings of fl, 500,000. or an Increase of nearly 75 per cent over the previous year. Bankers say that the bond market Is conservatively bullish. There Is good sentiment sen-timent prevailing among investors and funds seem plentiful although would-be investors are playing a waiting game. Trading on the stock market "was dull and narrow today and owing to the fact 1 hat many traders were out of town tho volume of business was light. United States Steel was one of the weakest features and tho IJorrlman Issues Is-sues were heavy. Southern Pacific started start-ed with a docllno of 8 and Union Pacific with a recession of about the same amount. Amalgamated Copper and American Amer-ican Smelting and Refining were both llrm and both closed 8 higher. Tho market was exceedingly dull after the opening. This was a holiday on the London stock exchange which was another an-other olexnent making for dullness. The good bank statement lent a good tone to what little trading there was. There was an Interesting rumor that a banking syndicate had been formed to take a great, amount of bonds. This. It Is said, would herald a big stock buying buy-ing campaign. Rock Island became pomowhat heavy nnd it closed 3 off. An ciTort was made to bid up Pennsylvania- As it was this stock closed 1 to 1 point higher. Commission houses wore almost deserted de-serted during the short session. The total to-tal number of wiles wore 122,225 shams. The market closed dull but firm. This wns the smallest Saturday's trading so fnr this yoav. Call money was quiet; forHgn exchange was 5 points up. Tho bond market was firm and stronger with a. ului)ilU ouUualC |