The San Francisco call., 1898-03-06
SECURITIES
 ARE HAMMERED Bears Cause a Drop in Prices of Stocks at
 New York.
Run1ors of War Preparations Cause Much Weakness
 in the Market.
Conditions That Prevent the Specu- lators From Splurqing
 Heavily as Usual.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, March 5.-From no ap- parent cause, so far as actual develop ments were concerned, there was sharp break in the prices of stocks to- day, and during two hours of business there was very active trading, the to- tai sales being about 227, GOO shares. Most of the leading stocks declined from 1 to 2 points. and in some of the specialties there were losses of three points. ,%
 Manhattan and Union Pacific pre- ferred. were features and were special objects of bear attacks Reports that Spain had borrowed large amount of money and had actually secured two warships as well as the knowledge that the United States had been offered eight men-of-war, seemed to have i'm pressed the average trader with the possibility of early hostilities. Rumors about Spains financial operations, how ever were taken with great deal of allowance among the bankers, some of them expressing the opinion that there was probably no foundation for the story except that that country was looking around for available vessels. Leading bears embraced the opportun- ty to hammer" prices, and when the weekly statement of the New York as- sociated banks came out these profes- Sional operators pointed to the great falling off in deposits and in loans as evidence of uneaSineSS of many inVeS- tors and smaller financial institutions scattered throughout the country which have credit balances in New York banks. When this statement came out, however, there wass partial re- vival in prices. According to the bank statement the total loans were s62S,- 256. 400, a decrease of S13, 3,622. .000 com pared with the condition of a week ago; specie holdings were $120, ,125, 300, an in- crease of $939, 400: legal tenders. ST. 202700. a decrease of sS.S73, roo; deposits. $706, ,020, 400, decrease of S23, 193, 300; cir culation. $13,774. 300, an increase of $47. 200.
 By the ordinary way of reckoning the decrease in deposits would average nearly s4O00,000 day, but considera- ble of this withdrawal occurred during the latter part of the previous week and did not show in the report of last week. The heavy withdrawals were in- cident to the anxiety that prevailed im- mediately after the Maine disaster. These withdrawals were made largely by country banks that thought it a good idea to have their money within easy reach in case of complications with another country. Many individ- ual depositors took their currency from smaller banks, and some traders also thought it was wise to get out of stocks for the time being. In the opinion of brokers, however, traders rarely be- come uneasy enough to withdraw their accounts. They simply wait until the situation becomes calmer.
 That the so-called commission bus mess in stocks has shrunken since the first scare caused many of them to drop their holdings is shown by the decrease in loans, for a very large part of the dealing in stocks and bonds is conducted on margins. necessitating the napOtiatiOD of large loans