The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-03-19
OF FINANCIAL MATTERS.
Dizziness and a Waiting Attitude
Characterize the Market
q. in New York.
There are. However, Many Symp-
toms to Encourage a
Hopeful Feeling.
Western Railroads Experience u Turn
Much for tho Better-Reassuring
News from London.


Especial Correspondence OF THE INDEPENDENT.
BANKING HOUSE, OF
HENRY CLEws n CO.,
IS AND Is BROAD STREET.
New York, March 14.-The stock market
retains the extreme dullness and the wait
ing attitude noted in my last weekly adj
vices. Transactions have been largely
confined to room.traders and very restrict
ed at that; and such attempts as there have
been to create a movement in q few special
ties were quickly abandoned.
But while transactions have been SO linn
tied in volume, certain symptoms have APP
peared which have tended to encourage q
more hopeful feeling. The reports of rail-
road earnings have not, as q rule, con-
Grmed the late Encouraging anticip atoms,
but show that there Ia a freer movement Of
trade In the interior than there has been
supposed to exist. The latest government
crop report confirms an impression that
has been growing among handlers of grain
that the earlier estimates of the bureau of
agriculture moderated the out-turn of last
years cereal crops, especially those of wheat
and corn. This was an unexpected boon
to the corn-carrying roads; while the vest
en- shares at large were benefited by
the significant and unexpected rejection
by the Kansas legislature of all bills ad-
verse to the interest of the railroads. A
favorable impression was also produced by
the appearance of London orders for GER
tain stocks, which was construed az lndl-
eating the beginning Of a revival of the
speculative interest in American securities
on that market.
The more Importance is attached to this
latter symptom because 1t 10 accompanied
with other evidences of an improved feel
ing at London. At the same time, consols
advanced. and the improvement was at
tributed to an expectation that Mr.. Go
schen's proposal to authorize the Bank of
England to issue notes of smaller denomi-
nations than Ave pounds would be adopted.
That measure would have a very important
bearing upon the London money
market, inasmuch as it would
draw from the home circulation
a large amount Of gold into the Bank of
thereby increasing the gold resources of the
bank and strengthening its resistance to
oscillations in the international specie
movement. This information from Lon
don, together with the renewal of orders
from tina market for our securities, is cal
culated to materially mitigate the fears
that nave been gathering. here about the
possibility of trouble in the credit circles
of the British metropolis. That apprehen-
sion has, perhaps as much as all other
causes combined, tended to encourage the
hesitation and postponement that have
lately characterized the New York market.
A certain degree of distrust aoout the OUT
come of Argentine affairs is likely to re-
main until all possibility of further disas-
ter is removed. But it is a hopeful factor
that the large. financial and commercial
houses of Argentine have combined in a
Ruenos Ayres end of the difficulty, which
ia calculated to strengthen the hands of
committed parties at the London end. The
more this Argentine complication is looked
into and understood. the more the con-
viction seems to gain ground that,
while unquestionably there has been a
vast overcreation of credit and speculative
enterprise, yet it has been connected with a
wonderful growth of solid industrial in
vestment. The breakdown in Argentine is
very much in the nature of our W eras of
extfavagant over-construction of railroad.
The wants may be real and solid; but they
nave been provided for largely in excess of
the measure of present requirements, and
probably enterprises have been ov%er-capital-
lied. Acountry with such vast tracts of land
of unsurpassed fertility, and with a yearly
influx of 10000 fine immigrants, is bound
to rise froma prostration of the kind that
has befallen the Argentine Republic. 1t is
probable there will not be wanting capital
lists who perceive the golden opportunity
afforded by the present depreciation of Ar
gentine properties, and the stage may be
nearer than is supposed when their pur-
chases will come in as IN ameliOrating fac
tor il the now gloomy situation. In the mean
time, however, it is quite possible that such
variations in the course of the Argentine re-
adjustments as occurred on Thursday, in
the case of a large Paris banking institu-
ton, may occasionally cause temporary re-
vivals Of distrust; but, 80 far, there has
been in all such cases a disposition among
houses to join hands to protect the embar-
raised.
With the signs of a favorable turn in af-
fairs foreign n domestic above indica-
ted, there is reason for hope for some early
improvement in the situation. The temper
of the market however is conservative, and
something must depend pom the tone of
the money market pending the usual April
transfers of currency to the interior; but
when that movement is passed a freer
speculative movement at a better range of
prices would seem to be in rder. In the
meantime, there is scope for fair profits on
buying upon moderate drops.
The currency movement at the banks, for
the past week, shows a net loss of 81, $780,
600 with the interior. and a net gain with
the sub-treasury of $S00,0OO. making a total
less of $1,000,O00.
HINRY CLEws.