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Show In Fact, Many Now Find Commerce Com-merce Commission Ruling Has Many Benefits. MAY HELP TO KEEP LIVING COST DOWN New Rules in Wall Street Give Man Who Buys Some Rights as Investor. BY PRESTON 0. ADAMS. By Leased "VVlro to Th Tribune. NEW YORK, March 11. Now that tho freight rato decision of tho Interstate commerce commission him been digested, tho railroads have decided not to go to smash after all, but will do buslnoas In about tho saino old way. In faot, somo of tho railroad magnates havo about como to tho concluolon that tho decision may not be an unmixed ovll after all. It la pointed out that tho greatest enemy of American capital during recont years has been hostllo public sentiment. The uncompromising stand taken by the lntcrstato commerco commission should, and probably will, disarm criticism that tho railroad can levy unreasonable charges upon tho people. Such a conquest con-quest Is worth moro to the corporations than any sum that could havo been derived de-rived from tho proposed Increase In freight rates. If tho ruling also has tho offect of checking tho aggressiveness of stato commissions, com-missions, now that the fedoral body has taken offectlvo action, anothor great good will have boon accomplished. Tho economic eco-nomic readjustment which has been in progress for twclvo months will bo accelerated, ac-celerated, whereas the granting of higher charges would havo tended to perpetuato the vicious circle of rising prices. Did not labor leaders plead, for tho proposed advances on tho gTourid that thereafter wages might bo again raised? This has been checked. Hero Are Somo Benefits. Opulence begets extravagance: necessity neces-sity stimulates economy. American railroad rail-road companies havo been lavish In their expenditures upon what might bo called tho ornamental, as witness tho erection of vorltablo palaces, as stations In the larger cities. If tho public refuse to provide pro-vide tho money for such projects, then thcro will bo a lull in Improvements of this kind until conditions again change for tho better and conditions In a young and progresslvo country are far moro likely to recover than to retrograde. Low freight rates will encourage traffic, traf-fic, -whereas high rates would discourage It, a fact that was very clearly understood under-stood and acted upon when debating was In vogue. The railroads were actuated to some extent in tholr movo to secure Increased rates by agitation for decreases; this agitation has been quashed. New Rules on Street. So the outlook may not bo do black after all. The public having consistently refused during tho last three years to play with Wall street under the old rules 10-polnt marglng, easily wiped out now and safer rules have been drawn up, with every promise of success. Instead of being, a rank speculator, as ho was under tho marginal method, the buyer can now claim to bo an Investor. Onco he pays his Urst Installment of $20 per share, ho and not tho broker commands the destiny of the stock; that 13 to say, the buyer alone can glvo an order to sell It. Of course, tho monthly payments have to bo met regularly as In tho case of other purchases by Installment, but the buyer knows tho extent of his liability, whereas under tho old-fashioned margin ho never knew whoro ho might stand. Tho investor under tho news system should bo oxtrcmely careful in selecting a broker and should also havo a hard and fast agreement as to what would happen wero the market to collapse Just after tho first twenty points wore paid. Short Notes the Rule. Since January 1. 1D07, tho total output out-put of now securities by railroad and industrial corporations In tho United States has reached 56,379,01-1,880. Of this total, $1,093,716,802 has consisted of short term notes. This I3 equivalent to 17J per cent. The railroads were responsible for SS8S.S00.002 of the notes, the balance of J204.01G.S00 having been contributed by Industrial and miscellaneous companies. The largest percentage of notes was reached in 1007, namely almost ono-fourth ono-fourth of tho total capital floated. In tho following year the proportion Just exceeded 21 per cent. Then there was a drop In 1D09 to little moro than 5 per cent, tlnsre having been plentv of cheap money and unbounded conndenco in a return of prosperity throughout tho country. coun-try. Short term financing was again resorted re-sorted to last year on a fairly largo scale, tho ratio being 18 per cent. During Dur-ing the current year, that is to say from January 1 to Fobruary 21. tho note issues is-sues havo been equivalent to 24 percent of the total capital distributed. l ThJre have been about six and a quarter quar-ter million bales of cotton exported thin year., about a million and three auarters more than at the same time last year. This cotton is not piled up at the ports on the other side. While it Is true that the stock of American cotton in Liverpool Liver-pool Is J86.000 bales larger than It was at this tlmo a year aco, tho foreieners are still buylnir. and at the end of the season the difference between the exports ex-ports of thl3 year and last will probably bo greater than it is today. The forelim-ers forelim-ers havo not bought cotton to hold out at IB cents a pound. They have boucht heavily only because they needed the cotton. Never in the history of the world has there been as manv spindles in ODera-tlon ODera-tlon in England as thero havo been during dur-ing the last bIx months. The many now mills are all running and so aro the old ones. They will need more American cotton before they can cot now crop unless un-less thero Is some radical chanso in conditions. It begins to look as If there was not gplng to be as much cotton left for domestic do-mestic mills as there was last year, for In spite of the free movement, the south 13 no loiiKer full of cotton, as the character char-acter of tho cotton now movlne plainly shows, Tho outlook for tho rest of this year is fully as good as It was at this tlmo a year ago. It looks as If American mills still have a great deal of cotton to buy. |
