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Show H WHY THIS NERVOUSNESS? MR : tf j j1 "While no one is able to explain why. the country is experiencing K j attac "nerves" in a business way, yet the fact that there is H V a nervous condition in financial affairs is recognized by all in any f degreo familiar with the business outlook. ; j There is much pessimism in the air and the stock markets are l being closely followed for signs of pronounced sentiment either for m f , better or wflrse conditions. Lately there has been a slump in the M j J stocks traded in on Wall street and one of the stocks to suffer inost is Union Pacific, which has been driven down several points, IL notwithstanding that the company's financial roports show the road E I is producing profits of 16 to 17 per cent. There is no good reason H given for this depreciation, except the talk of a strike. A New Hjl'l York financiul authority is quoted as saying: Hj " read Judge Lovett's interview yesterday with gratification, j But the president of a railroad cannot talk as freely as he would K like- Neither can the great banking interests affiliated with the 1 road. To do so would be to invite suspicion of talking for market effect. " know absolutely whereof I speak when I charge plainly that H the campaign against Union Pacific has been and is being en- j 'gincered by a big western plunger. There is no length to which V j the desperate people will not go in their desperate attempt to H 'drive a great public property down to a market price where they H ' cau cash in on their shorts. I know that their short line is so great H? ( that- could they cover at present quotations they could realize $10,- H1 j 000,000 profits But I don't believe they can succeed." H- As to the bear raids on the stock exchange, bankers have little H to say other than that the speculative game now being played would H in a short time leave high and dry some of those who had tried j to destroy legitimate values by the dissemination of false state-' - ments affecting the conditions of railroad and other corporations. H A. Barton Hepburn, president of the Chase National bank, H chairman of the clearing house and presiding officer of the chamber H Vj of commerce says : K "There is nothing the matter with existing conditions, from a K business standpoint. Crops, averaging the country as a whole, are U 'good. Prices are high, labor generally is well employed at good H ' prices, collections are good. The large volume of undigested securi- H ties arc gradually finding their level and being absorbed by the H t ultimate consumer that is, finding lodgment in the hands of invest- Hji? "What this country is in need of is less agitation from the B ? agitator who is not rich and more roal broadness of view from the H'v man who commands milions. One is as much to blame as the B; other. The very rich man confesses himself a coward by constant- H' ; ly expressing fear, while the agitator, who wants a division of Hj . ! wealth, is hurdened with a courage that is everlastingly causing Hli ; him to defy tho gods. |