The times., 1899-09-12
STOCKS slowly SAGGING
Favorable Circumstances Clouded
by Tight Money Conditions.
A Gradual Decline in Prices in All
Divisions of the Market Fairly
Active Buying for Foreign Account
on Easier Feeling rs to Affairs
i'm the TransvaaI and in France.

NEW YORK, Sept. lin today's situa-
ton the circumstances of an encouraging
character We're overshadowed by the ex-
pected development of a more stringent
money market. The latter was plainly
the determining influence in the days
dealings. The noted favorable circum-
stances We're the more reassuring advices
in regard to the South African situation
| and further the absence of any serious dis
turbances in France, following the an
nouncement of the verdict in the Dreyfus
| case. The London market reflected both
matters in a straight advance in which
| American stocks participated and in to-
days dealings foreign arbitrage houses
were buyers on balance of some $4,000
shares of stock. Apparently these pur-
chdses for foreign account reflected the
covering of short sales made in anticipa-
tion of some serious developments in both
disturbed quarters.
The revelation of the condition of the
associated banks. as made in Saturdays
bank statement, was logically followed to-
day by a fairly close money market, little
of the borrowing being effective under the
legal rate and good deal of money being
placed above it. This circumstance natu-
IClIg tduStU d SObu Q6dl Ol StiiiIS VI
stocks by commission houses and there
were also aggressive operations for the
short account, based upon the same ground.
Sterling exchange was somewhat easier,
but there was nothing in the state of that
market to indicate that any relief might
be expected from that quarter for some
weeks to come. Conjecture was active as
to whether or not the Secretary of the
Treasury would take any steps looking to
I - he
Apparently the only means at the disposal
of the Secretary of the Treasury to relieve
the conditions are through the anticipa
tion of the October interest on the Gov
ernment debt, and through the diversion
into banks of deposit Of the moneys coll
lected under the, internal revenue act.
The course of prices in the days mar
ket does not require partieularization, as it
comprised little more than a gradual de-
cline from the opening, participated in alike
by the standard stocks and the so-c2lled
fancy grade of securities. The monetary sit
uation was the sole and responsible factor
in the common decline. Two items of rail-
way news received today attracted little
attention on account of absorption of in
terest in the monetary situation One was
the call by the Alton syndicate managers
for 20 per cent of the subscription to the
3 per cent bonds, and the other was of the
progress making in the South toward the
consolidation of the various lines comprised
in the Seaboard Air Line system, together
with the properties which the controlling
interests there have acquired in Florida and
Georgia. 1t is understood that the Seaboard
Railway project is to take somewhat the
form of the late lamented Richmond ter
minal enterprise; that is to say. of rail-
way trust, controlling the securities of the
subsidiary companies. Whether the fate of
the new enterprise will be like that of its
predecessor remains to be seen, but it is
at least certain that none of the companies
now controlled can be regarded as so in
trinsically valuable as the lines that COM
prised the old terminal system. Further
more, the new system must inevitably suffer
from the competition and antagonism of
solvent and well-established lines now oc-
cupying the territory unnecessarily invaded
by the Seaboard syndicate.