The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-12-19
A VAIL STREET FURRY
Clearing House Banks Prevent a
Serious Money Panic.
FABULOUS RATES FOR MONEY.

In One Instance, IL Is Asserted, 1S0
per Cent WAS PnId-stoclSs Thrown
over without the slightest Regard
10 the Price They would Bring.
New York. Dec. 19.-Panic conditions
developed on the Stock Exchange yes
terday afternoon. with the imperative
need Of money developed by the vio-
lent contraction of values Stocks we're
being thrown over without the slight
est regard to the price they would
bring, and at distressing sacrifice of
values. No end to the helplessness Of
the situation seemed in sight when, in
the last half hour of the market, some
Sl0,000,000 was offered on the Stock
Exchange by the concerted action of
the clearing house banks to force the
rate arbitrarily down to per cent
without regard to the distracted bid
ding at higher rates which was being
done by other bankers for distressed
operators The collapse III the money
rate checked the decline and drove the
bears to cover The recoveries pro-
duced by their urgent bidding were al
most as violent as the declines had
been. but the losses were by no means
entirely retrieved. Large offerings of
stocks continued at the rally, and at
some points Of the list prices broke
anew before the close. making the los
ing exceedingly irregular and unset
tied
Before the concerted relief by the
Clearing House banks and money rate
leaned to so 70. 100 and according to
IN
BILE reports assert that 1856 per cent was
paid for monev during the day. The
official record of such transaction
VISA lost in the excitement.
The excitement continued to the end,
with sentiment looking forward anx-
iously for the developments Of an
other day. The seriousness of the
crisis has celled forth the best efforts
of powerful and conservative financial
interests, who are busy concerning
measures to tide over the money diff
culties which beset the stock market
and which, by reason of their extent
and the importance of the interests in
volved, threaten to affect the country's
business unless obstacles are opposed.
It Is considered a point gained to
have effected a cessation of the ruth
a period of consideration over night,
for the selling of stocks had unques-
tionably reached that stage where Or
binary considerations of prudence or
even of necessity had been thrown to
the wind. and the sufferers from the
money stringency were unloading their
holdings in the true panic spirit. A
pause of a few hours for consideration
is likely in itself to do much toward
rectifying such condition.
So far as actual news was concerned,
there was suspension by a newly or
ganized trust company and by a firm
of bankers and brokers who have fig
ured as tradera in stocks to an extent
of some Importance. Neither event In
itself would have been sufficient to
precipitate a crisis. But they were
supplemented with a whole crop of
wild and incoherent rumors which
spared no interest, however powerful,
long established and hitherto free
from suspicion it may have been. One
would think from the tone of some of
the gossip that was flying about that
the whole financial fabric had been uR-
dermined and was about to tumble In
ruins. Yet the day closed with the two
failures above mentioned as the sum
total of disaster, so far as admitted In
solvency was concerned.
The trust company which closed its
doors yesterday was the Produce Ex-
change Trust company. The company
was organized a couple OF years ago
with a capital of $2,500,000 and had a
reported surplus and undivided profits
at this time of over $s,500,000, It's
business was chiefly with merchants,
tradesmen and corporations in its i'm
mediate vicinity ana 1t was also sup
posed to do some of the banking busi-
ness OF the Standard Oil company. II
had been designated by the banking de-
partment of the state as lsgal de-
pository for state moneys and munici-
pal moneys, as we'll as for the funds
of savings banks and state banks. T.
A. Peall is president of the company
and Edwin Could first vice president.
Mr.. Could wrote q letter to the eXg
ecutive cr mmittee of the company on
Dec. & iDficating his intention to re-
sign the vice presidency, The letter
was written on examination OF the
books and accounts of the company,
He declared he had found matters for
which he did not care to assume re-
sponsibility He was induced to re-
main in office, and when the company
closed yesterday Mr.. Gould was chosen
chairman of an investigating commit
tee. This committee reports that every
| depositor of the company will be paid
in full, and that a large surplus will
remain for tne stockholders.
The other failure was the firm OF
Allen & Co. The suspension is at
tributed to the failure OF some OF its
customers to respond TO calls for ad-
ditional margins made necessary by
recent declines. The liabilities are
said to be in the neighborhood of ST.
900 600
The Seventh National bank sent
notice to its correspondents last night
that it would not continue TO clear for
the International Rlnking and Trust
company, a new concern which has
been clearing through the Seventh Ma
tional. IL also maintained close busi-
ness relations with the Produce Ex-
change Trust company, which suspend
ed yesterday.
Tbs excitement in Wall street was
followed by similar slumps in Phila-
delphia, Boston and other cities, but
| no failures were reported