The San Francisco call., 1899-11-20
AUCTION SALES.
THE LATEST WALL STREET GAME

He financial feature OF the week the
posure OF the Wall-street conspiracy to bleed
borrowers. For months Wall street has been
groanng under the burden OF tight money, and sew
eral weeks ago the Government was implored 10 re-
heye the strngency by buying back bonds issued by
previous administrations But the Government at
first declined, saying that the strngency was not
mercantile but speculative, and artificial that Il
openly charged, and subsequently discovered, that
certain Shyocks in the street were borrowing I'M
mense sums OF money that they did not need and
leaving IN the lenders hands subject TO call All
such money was. OF course, withdrawn from circua-
on funds became scarce, and the wealthy borrowers
theu loaned their own private money at ruinous rates
81 interest But the pressure became so great that
az length the Government did consent to buy bonds
not 10 the amount OF SIoooooooo as desired but to
the amount OF S2s.oooooo. The sequence was anus
ing and instructive 10 the whole country The Joke
was that after all the outcry for the purchase OF bonds
very few parties could be found who wanted to sell
The banks Immediately declined, saying that the
money market tight only in Wall street and
they preferred keep their bonds. A syndicate to
sell SIoooo.ooo was formed and that was all So the
Governments charges proved true.
The effect, however. good. The money mar
et at once eased Of, being assisted by material in
crease IN the circulation by liberal call loans by the
banks. London, too, appeared in the market as
moderate buyer OF our securities, so the situation
became much easier.
There are growing indications OF halt in the iron
boom. Pgiron has indeed advanced, but manufac-
tured products weakening, and the new demand
does not Offset the completion OF old orders How
ever the latter sufficient keep the majority OF
mills running FAR into the coming year. The minor
metals continue to decline, as a rule On the other
l,,--f f--ae
Lumber IS firm and active Wool is also in good
demand, both for export and local account, and
cereals hides and leather boots and shoes have ruled
firm for some time. though wheat weakened off
somewhat Prices for provisions suffered some shad-
ing The textile manufactures continue 10 sell freely
though wool products are hampered by the rise in
the raw product.
The bank clearngs OF the country fell off last week
being only 10 per cent larger than for the same
week last year, though every large city except ST
Paul showed gain. The gains. however, showed
scaling down everywhere from recent levels and
Pittsburg dropped to 6SI per cent, with New York
showing gain OF only I6 per cent and Chicago 2r7
per cent The failures for the week were 2ro. against
zz5 last year. which is also less favorable showing
than for some months.
On this there are few new features. All lines
continue TO report activity with no diminution in
the demand for all sorts OF goods Fluctuations in
produce and merchandise have been few, but almost
always in the direction OF higher prices The con-
tinued rains promise year OF heavy crops. and as
most farm and orchard products are bringing good
prices the effect on the community is excellent Col
eotons arc reported good, failures are infreouent
and small and solvent borrowers find no difficulty in
securing funds reasonable rates Of interest AS far
California is concerned the situation could hardly
be better