The times., 1899-05-19

take care of itself. They suggest further
that Mr.. Keene and his bear friends will
be certain to take advantage of this with
drawal of support to hammer prices again.
The other side OF the argument is equal
ly lucid. one being only required to pay
his money to his broker to take his choice.
Ii is suggested that the Flower brokers,
the Vanderbilts. the Standard Oil people,
and the other recent supporters of the
market, will not care tc sell out at this
juncture. and Withdraw fheir support. Such
a course would nullify all that they have
done in the past week. and leave the mar
ket in worse position even than it was
before. with no hope of recovery whatever.
The big insurance companies did not buy
stocks to help their friends sell cut,
but TO strengthen the market and start a
boom in prices. Ths Standard Oil people
are holders of securities for Investment
much more than they are manipulators,
and they have no wish to see prices tum-
BILE. Mr.. Flowers friends and partners are
believers in Brooklyn Rapid Transit, the
Federal Steel securities. and Peoples Gas,
and as they stated on Saturday and Mon
day. they have invested in these stocks,
believing that they will be worth much
more in the future. because of the earn
ing capacity OF the companies. The inter
ests of all these people, the best people in
the financial world. lie in the direction of
higher prices. This is the technical sit
uatlon. AS to the prosperity of the couu-
try it seems to the bulls to favor higher
prices, and to the bears not to warrant
the present level Here also there Is the
excellent chance for the individual exer-
else OF choice. 1t is worthy of some con-
sideration that the bears have been pre-
dieting a break for four days, or since
u
ter of fact, nothing of the kind has oc-
CURED up to the present time except such
a reaction as comes on any day in bull
market. The bulls even expected more OF
a break and expected it earlier.
The granger shares were, on the whole
the most conspicuous yesterday, with n
strength that they have not shown for
many days. The recent heavy buying of
these stocks by London, the continuance
of the fine showing made by the earnings
statements. especially st. Paul's, and, per-
haps more than either of these matters
return to something like sanity regarding
the winter wheat crop by the street have
caused a much more hopeful feeling re-
garding this group. Wheat yester-
day was bought heavily and had an ad-
vance of two cents bushel in price but
Notwithstanding this fact all the grangers
early hours Of the day, making gains of
from one to two points and getting above
the level Of last Friday. During the last
hour there was selling of the group with
the remainder of the market and the gains
were lost. That a break of Importance did
not occur on account of the strength of
wheat is most significant The winter
wheat crop is important to the country and
to the railroads. Neither the country nor
the railroads, however, depend entirely on
this crop for their lives. AS a matter of
fact If the crop is damaged to the extent
of say so per cent. and this is a most liberal
estimate, there is not more than one of the
granger roads that will suffer any decrease
of earnings that need worry its friends
There is little profit in hauling wheat and
the loss that Is made will be more than
made up in the great increase in general
freight business, which is far more profit
able. 1t is even quite probable that the
grangers will all continue to show in
creases in earnings this year despite the
| breaking of records last year.
In the steel and iron trade the demand
is running further and further ahead OF
| the o<put despite the working of every
plant in the country to its utmost capac-
| ty. The result OF this is advances in prices
every week and almost every day 1t is
one OF the factS OF lne commercial world
often and always demonstrated that mar
ket securities follow the course of the iron
and steel trade. This trade is now in the
| best condition in many years. il not even
better than ever before. The entire mar
| ket will be helped wonderfully by he
| boom. but II is difficult to see how the
prices OF steel and iron securities can be
| kept down This is the view that Mr.
| Flower took OF the situation. and the great
strength of the stocks of this group dur
Ing the past few days shows conclusively
| that the market leaders are OF the same
] opinion II is not to be believed that