Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1903 — SLUMP IN STEEL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SLUMP IN STEEL.

Decline Canoed a Loo. of $300,000/100 to 75,000 Stockholders. On top of the mighty slump in steel stocks, forcing a loss of $300,000,000 on 75,000 investors, came a slight rally

Wednesday in both the common and preferred shares. There are 75,000 stockholders of the United States Steel Corporation in the States, many of them in Che middle West,' whose savings of a lifetime have been wiped out by tlie terrific smash the company’s stock has re-

eoived 011 the New York Stock Exchange. Various explanations of the sensational fall are offered—that the country is about entering upon n period of commercial depression; that the insiders want to squeeze out the small stockholders, and that the dividend on the common stock —now 4 per cent —is to be passed at Che next quarterly meeting. In Pittsburg, the center of the steel trust’s operations, it is declared that the weakness in the stock was due to manipulation. Prominent financiers declared that the present board of directors of the trust lost control of the stock some time ago, and that' any well balanced pool could have secured control, and in the event of an election couhl have seriously threatened the power of J. T. Morgan & Co. From men known to be close to the leaders in the trust comes the declaration, through New York dispatches, that the slump is due to a raid. A banker

who had called on Mr. Morgan charged John W. Gates with being the leader iu the attack. “This development is not liquidation,” he declared, "if a man liquidates he tries to get the best possible price, but the sellers did not stand on any price. It was a case of ‘soak, soak, soak,’ and the lower the price went the better they liked it. In my opinion the attack is made on steel in order to distract attention from the buying of railroad stocks.”

J. w. GATES.

J. PIERPONT MORGAN.