Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-10-15

MONDAY EVENING, OCT. is. 1893.
BuIIs and Hears.

Mr.. William II. Vanderbilt thinks that
the bears in the stock market are very
bad men which makes II clear that Mr..
Vanderbilt himself is not at present a
bear, II be Is expressing his real senti-
ments about these creatures as he no
doubt Is, since his son William has come
to grief as bull, and his fathers SYM
pathy goes out to him. Mr.. Vanderbilt,
senior, has not we'll established repu.
tation for truthfulness, but the circum.
stances now give assurance that he
speaks from the bottom of his heart in
matchmaking the bad bears. The
hard fact, however, is that the bears in
stocks do greater good to the commu
nifty at large than do the bulls. Mr..
Vanderbilt says that his son, who was
left two millions of dollars by his grand
father half dozen years ago. has
increased that sum to eight millions /; he
has done this by bulling stocks, not by
any productive industry. But the higher
theprice of stocks the greater is the charge
to the community. For these stocks are
valued according to their dividend pre-
ducing capacity. II the price of stocks
could be kept up to the figures to which
they are sent by the bulls, the merchants
would have to pay the piper. But they
cannot be kept there because they cannot
earn the necessary dividends and they
cannot earn these because there is too
much competition. There is not enough
business, for instance, to go around among
the railroads and keep them all busy.
The country suffers from an excess of
facilities for doing business. The value
of the plants goes down. The stock of
railroads that are capitalized at sum
greatly exceeding their cost must seek
their proper level. The bears in stocks
are not the creators of the downward
course of the market. They would soon
be tossed by the bulls if they were not
following the course of real values. No
doubt their efforts facilitate the falling
tendency, and may carry it below the
proper level {; but 1t will soon rebound
and settle down at proper figure. Mr..
Gould and Mr.. Vanderbilt and
other stock operators who have
been giving Of late years
higher value of stocks than was legiti.
mately theirs for the purpose of stealing
profit from those who they could per
suade to belief in their false declara.
tions Of value, are the causes of the pres
ent depression. They have been found
out. They bought stocks of little value
aud watered stocks of more substance,
swelling out their financial proportions
and selling them to those who were de
ceived by their fair appearance of health
That game has been stopped. They have
been caught at it. Mr.. Gould, who |
bought Tom Scott's Texas Pacific at |
fifty-fve and sent the stock to somewhere
about ninety, sees it now selling at near
twenty. Tbs Western Union, which he
undertook to swell, has never responded |
very kindly to his most energetic efforts,
and he now has, and for a long time had, |
to stand under it to keep it from going |
down into the depths. MIR. Gould has
not been able to take that recess from
the labors which, in anticipation of
year ago, he ordered steam yacht 10
enable him to enjoy in foreign travel.
No doubt he would have liked very
much to get away from a market that
was no longer susceptible to his
peculiar manipulations but he tar
ried too long. a market that has
failed to respond to the ardent desire of
the greatest capitalists interested in
1t, and fails in spite of their efforts to
sustain 1t, is not likely to get down be.
low its proper level. 1t is more probable
that it will be held above it. Stocks
much as they have fallen, are not now
generally intrinsically worth what they
are selling for. There is ample room for
further shrinkages if present values
guaged by their dividend producing
power, is to be the test of their market
price.