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Show PROSPERITY WAVE : IS JKISllE Even Pnuickv Conditions in Wall Street Cannot Check Onward Tide of Growth. WEEK WAS MARKED BV BATTLE OF THE GIANTS Outlook Is Not All Bright, With Troubles in Railroad Circles. BY EALPH W, EMERSON. .By Leased Wlro to The Tribune. NFW YORK. Feb. 5. Wall .Street trembled this week upon the. verge of one or tho most disastrous breaks since tho panicky days or 1007. It was literally and tlguruilvely advanced that thc monev giants waged war around and over the great copper merger which may yot exert tho most baleful Influence upon business and financial afralrs of the country in tho annals or recent years. Up and down and up and down with bear raid after bear raid, finally eonsummatlng. in a, combined tolal drop of eight to nine points, the market sagged. And to add to the gloom or the situation Flsk and Robinson, ond or thc biggest bond houses in America, railed for 57,000,000. Cut even the. Juggling Jug-gling of the giants Willi stocks for tho pawns cannot shako the general prosperity prosper-ity of Ihc country, so far has tho recovery recov-ery gone. With nine and one-half millions mil-lions or dollars lost In the copper stocks alone on Thursday, the railroads and Industrial In-dustrial corporations go merrily along expending ex-pending ror Improvements, satisfied that iho prosperity wave, as great as it is now. will be greater nc.Nt year and greater great-er iho year beyond. Thc greatest baltle was between thc Morgan and Guggenheim Interests with United States Steel under fire on one side and thc copper shaces under lire on the other. Aeordlng to the best belief In Wall Street tho battle Is being waged over tho lesser combination of copper producing companies. With tho Morgan Interests opposing the consolidation of Iho lesser copper companies ror rear it Will Jeopardize tho bigger $100,000,000 merger, tho Cuggenheims wont Into ihc market to effee.i thc attack by combining combin-ing their forces upon steel. No one knows how many millions thc Morgan Interests drew from their resources to stem tho tide, but when 1 point to the fact that steel common foil only U points, while eoppers sagged li to 8 points losses, some Idea can be gained of thc strength of Iho opponents. , Hut. as I say, the integrity of general gen-eral prosperous conditions is not harmed. It is true the railroads arc staggering under a great burden of employee troubles, trou-bles, but by acting In concert this week when sixty western and southwestern roads unitedly refused wago advances. It gave tlie men lllllo chance ror retaliation. retalia-tion. Twenty-seven railroads In the southwest will have demands for lrlgher wages levied upon them next week. The result of these conferences Is a matter for the future but no apprehension Is felt. The rallronds aro handling heavy trartlc both rrelfchi nnd passenger. Computing upon the basis of the lirst six months of the current fiscal year. Louisville and Nashville will earn 20 per cent upon Us $00,000,000 stock. Reading I? earning 4i per cent upon ils common stock despite tlie fact that many of Ils collieries in tho anthnicite region of Pennsylvania are closed. According to a statement made a day or so ago Grout Northern has In Its lieasury at this moment $lfi,C82.000 rrco assets ror any use the directors may choose lo make, of It with 7 per cent dividend divi-dend In view. From a non-dlvldend road the Clover Leaf system Is now being opera led on a basis paying per cent to holders of Its stock. Canadian Pacific directors wll declare a dividend the sizn of which is unknown. The quarterly dividend divi-dend or li per cent declared by Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania this week shows an earning capa-cilv capa-cilv of C per cent upon its stock for the current year. With these tlnurcs before us one forgets the bickerings of Wall Street. Reports from Pittsburg and P.lrmlng-ham P.lrmlng-ham report eondltlonb In steel and ore better than prevailed during Iho holidays. The announcement of nearly $30,000,000 worth of foreign contracts for steel con struction work tills week is gratirymg. Southern ore conditions mlghl be better, but. industrially speaking, the south Is enjoying a full meed of prosperity. Thc Alabama Oily furnace is being started IIiIk week and tlie new nail and wire mill at Gadsden will soon be ready for operation. opera-tion. A new sleel mill a I. tho Alabama city will go Into operation late this month. Approximately M por cent ot the mills of the 1" nlted States Steel corporation cor-poration are working- The corporation now lias a total surplus in its treasury of $nr.o.noiuion. Some trepidation has been felt over the wage increase demands of the coal miners min-ers who are in convention at Indianapolis.' Indianapo-lis.' Fail while higher wages are demanded, de-manded, joint conferences are being planned and it Is more than likely a compromise can be effected. The men ask a wage increase tanging from 10 cents to ?l per ton. With the tirst annual meeting of tlie directors or tho Central Leather companv. com-panv. we hear of rumors of the Initial dividend on the common slock 1 be completion or the merger of the I nlted States leather company and the Central gives rise to Lhe dividend report. Weather conditions have become more satisfactory generally. In the west and northwest congested freight I rat lie Is be-Inc be-Inc cleared away The cost of living agitation agi-tation still simmers, but tho hysteria of the crusade has abated. Money conditions are Improved. Although Al-though the redemption of national brink notes continues to Increase. It is merely an argument for currency leform. F.rlsk biivhi In tlie two hours ol I railing rail-ing on ihc stock market today was reflected re-flected In substantial gains of from i lo 13 the last named rise being in Pullman Palace C-ir. So far as the course ot prices Indicated, there seemed to be a prettv general desire to buy stocks at present levels, in tlie belief that tlie filiation fi-liation has now .Hi gone from the market mar-ket II was a satisfactory market all around, not at all anlinuted or nervous, but lasting. , , , , The opening fans active, with .considerable .consid-erable variation In lhe degree of strength ami American Smelling and Refilling was conspicuous for its overnight advance, the third sale being at S2Z, where the stork closed on Friday night. The short interest here was said to bo gieatly ovcicxtend-(i. I'nited Stales Sle d opened with an overnight gain ot i; Rock lslnnd was In fair demand, and the London cables showed a pronounced Increase, In-crease, in strength abroad. The first break came In coppers, with American Smelting and Amalgamated re.-u-ting nnrly a n'olnt. and the rest of the market fractionally sympathizing. Tin- bears, finding It impossible to force the stocks, resumed their covering. The report today thai George W. Pet . kins, the partner of .1. P. Morgan, had told President Tafi ho favored federal -hnrlers lor Incorporations, gave an easier tone to Wall street, for tho administration ad-ministration measure of federal Incorporation Incor-poration was one nbout which there had been some excitement. Cables told of better conditions In Loudon, Lou-don, but there was scarcely any activity upon the Loudon slock exchange, all the securities being unlet, but firm. .Consols .Con-sols regained one-sixteenth of their loi-s of yesterday, and it few small Increases were shown elsewhere. Foreign discounts were unchanged In the money market. KxpeotiiUops or tho cutting Of a substantial sub-stantial melon was tho ground for heavy buying of Pullman Palaco Car It is believed be-lieved that the extra dividend or Pullman Pull-man will lin rcase lhe stock to 220. The Hill stocks were strong and fairly active There was apparentlv no ground for thc itiinur tluu LIh'dh Idem! will be cut. |