San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-09-02
FINANCIAL REVIEW.

Reported for the LIGHT by Henry Clews
Il Co.
SPECIAL.
New YORK, Sept. 2.
The "boom" in the stock mark ct
has now had four weeks of trial. The
movement has steadily gained in
strength and breadth; the clears"
have retired from opposition to it and
many of them have gone over to the
other side; it has commanded the con.
fidenoe of London, which from being
o free seller has become an active
buyer; it has extended from the share
market to the long dormant bond
market; tho volume of business has
risen to three-fold what 1t had pre-
viously been; the other speculative
cities have caught the infection from
New York; an "outside" interest has
entered the market large enough to
show that there is no lack of either
means or disposition among the pub.
lie to speculate or to invest when they
are satisfied with the situation; and
prices have considerably advanced,
while the advance has not been
checked by realings which have been
made by large holders, but still con-
tinues.
These facts are sufficient evidence
that, at least, the "boom" is backed
by q large measure of confidence; that
it is more than q squirt engineered
by few large and needy holders Of
stocks, as at first suspected; and that
there is q large body of influential
opinion In Wall street and out to the
effect that the present situation of the
country favOrs an era of national
prosperity and consequently better
prices for investments. Judging from
present symptoms, there is s,reasona-
BILE probability of the boom being
supported and of an active and rising
market being maintained through the
fall season. Perhaps the only
danger lies in the usual tendency of
spec ulative movements to rush from
one extreme to another and
thereby quickly exhaust themselves.
The spectacle of such an eXtraordi.
nary harvest as the present one is
naturally calculated to arouse spec
ulative enthusiasm which may carry
prices up at railroad pace to an
elevation far above what the occasion
really warrants. Such movements
are neither healthy nor, in the long
run, really profitable. They end in
explosion and reaction and entail
heavy losses upon the over sanguipe
class to whom the overriding is
mainly due. The true course, under
the now existing conditions, is to
follow the improvements in the sit
uation as they arise rather than to
take them for granted in anticipa-
ton. Much of the financial force be-
in the hands of some half-dozen men
of great wealth, whose policy tits to
give encouragement and 'taffy" to
the mass Of smaller sanguine opera
tors and then sell out upou their
dupes. A prudent operator will
regularly take his profits, and not use
them as new margin for increased
purchases so as to find himself finally
among mass of weak holders who
are unable to sustain the market
against strong men who want to
break prices.
At the present moment there seems
to be, in certain potent quarters, q de-
sire to force and initiate the market
and then get out of stocks. There are
long headed and influentia operators
who perceive that prices have al
ready sufficiently advanced to satisfy
all that is certain and realized in the
situation. They are willing to pocket
the advance that has come in SYM
patty with the harvested winter
wheat; but they think it prudent to
let the immature spring wheat, corn
and cotton crops stand over for fu-
ture speculation, the drift of which
can be much better judged when the
contingencies of frost have passed.
dred shares, who takes every thing
hoped for as sure to happen, is the
kind of silment on when the more
prudent and bigger fish fsttens; and
my word to these average sized oper
ators is that they keep q sharp look
out for the safety of their profits.
The money market affords, on the
whole, an encouraging outlook. The
reserves of the banks have at last be-
gun to decline freely under the dram
of money TO the interior, and large as
the Purplus is, as compared with one
or two years ago, yet it is necessary
for the banks to depend upon being
literally reinforced with cash from
some outside source. Some amount
may be expected after September lst
from the redemption of U. S. A IL per
cen ts-about q 200, 900 of which re-
main to be extended or redeemed;
but what sum will be redeemed the
event only can show. The main
danand dance of the hank smnat ha Ii non