Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
THE OFF WEEK.
Henry Clews Co. Note an Improved Tone
In Wall Street-Change in the CONNER
cial Policy of the Country One of the
Signs-Millions for Disbursements

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH.I
NEW YORK, Dec. 27-Henry Clews & Co. in
their weekly financial letter say: Owing to the
intervention of the holidays the past has been
an "off' week in Wall street. Nothing has oc-
Cured to break the dullness and monotony Of
a market in which nobody sees any particular
chances on either buying or selling, and prices
have drifted from hour to hour according to
the transactions OF room traders satisfied with
fractional advantages. But while there has
been no spiri. in business and the tendency has
seemed to be toward the stagnant indifference
that is SO apt to follow such experience as we
have recently witnessed yet there has been a
perceptible improvement in the tone of the
market. 1t passes for something that
the banks are recovering their reserves;
that they are returning their certificates to the
Clearing House; that they are more disposed to
lend on time and are discounting more freely;
that failures are becoming much less frequent,
and that generally we seem to be reaching the
end of the unsettling immediate after-affects Of
the financial crisis and can see the way clear TO
a recovery of confidence in commercial circles
These are substantial gains in the situation
OF course, they are not sufficient OF themselves
to create any important buying movement in
stocks; but they do go very far towards giving
assurance that stocks. taken as whole, have
reached solid and safe bottom, and present a
good basis of investmentto those able to buy
them for more or less permanent holdings; and
of stocks out of the floating supply.
Time and certain conditions are necessary
before anything like spirited Improvement of
prices and activity can be expected. There
must be a recovery of the cash resources neces-
sary for speculation, which have been various
ly scattered and tied up by recent events; there
must be more certain feeling than at present
exists about the general recovery of trade to a
healthy and prosperous basis; there must be
more light upon the prospects of financial legls-
lation, In respect to which confidence is greatly
disturbed by the proposed further imitation Of
the silver circulation and by the absence of any
really sound measures for putting monetary
and banking affairs upon basis of soundness
and stability. 1t is also necessary that there
shall be some deliverance from the uncertain
ties growing out of the political situation,
which Is so perpleXingly confused by the sense
less issues into which a large portion OF our
farmers have been misled. Moreover,
there hangs over the country marked
probability that, within the next three
years, the country may be started uDon an i'm
portant change Of commercial policy; which is
a question involving more or less directly every
interest, whether industrial, mercantile
financial, and which, considering the differ
ences of opinion on the question, must produce
a good deal of ferment and hesitation Of enter
prise. 1t is also a matter upon which an i'm
portant class of people will wait for future
light as to whether the New York banks are
likely to remain subject to the severe periodic
monetary drains which have become an in
creasingly disturbing element for the last three
yea rs, and which are disqualifying the banks
from adequately meeting large local require
ments. In short, the impression is becoming
quite general that the enterprise OF the coun-
try is gaining at a rate much more rapid than
the financial facilities upon which it is de-
pendent; .and this impression is calculated to
promote caution in all undertakings requiring
large credit support. Indeed, 1t is one
peculiarly Of the future OF the stock