The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1899-12-19
Great Excitement on New York
Stock Exchange Yesterday.
STOCKS THROWN OVERHEARD
Only Prompt Action Of Clearing House
Association Ayerted Trouble Which
Might Have Been Serious.

NEW YORK. Dec. l5.-Pamc cOndl-
tlons developed on the stock exchange
thls aft,rnoIu with the imperative
need u money developed by The vlo-
lrut contraction In yalucs.
stocks wr-c being thrown over with
out 'hc slightest regard 20 the price
they would bring. and 81 distressing
sacuhces Of values. No IND of the
helplessness ~ the situation seemed
in sight when In the last half hour
81 the marE=g some SO 200 900 was
oasrrd on stock exchange by the con-
certcd acti,;i of the cleaIing hOuse
blnks, to force thu rate arbitrarily
down - six per cent
The collapse in the money rate
checked the ieclin. and drove the
b-a0s 90 cover. The rgcoyeries pro-
duced by urgent bldtng were almost
a. violent as the declines established,
but the losses were by no means en-
tirely retIiyed.
The excitement continued 10 the end
with the sentiment looking forward
anXiously Tor The developments Of an
oul.er dag The seriousness Of the
ciias has called forth the best efforts
Of powerful and conservative fran
cial Interests which are busy concert
Ing measures 20 tide over the money
difficulties which beset the stock mar
ket and which by reason of their eX-
tent and the importance of the inter-
osts involved thrlan Ia affect the
cOuntry's busin - iutaTN ssts uuless
obstacles are imposed
So far as actual news was concern
ed today there was a Suspension by a
newly organized trust company and
by firm " bankers and brokers who
nave fgured as tride,s In stock TO
an extent OF some Importance. Meth
er event in tsslf would have been
sufficient 90 prscipluate the crisis. But
they wcr. supplemented with whole
crop OF Wild and incohspnt rumors.
The reason for the widespread et-
feet upon the sentiment of the trust
comTarys suspension vas that it WAS
one Of the largs number OF insiitn-
tons recently formed on similar Lines
ana which have ;hrived upon the
multiplying II securities inciden, Ca
the industrial combinations which
have been "a feature of the past year,
SECURITIES # these combinations as a
class have been in disfavor in wall
street for many weeks past and in
fact ever since the headlong imitation
In their prices and subsequent col
laose last spring.
Befop the concerted relief by the
clearing house banks, the money rate
l,apcd to 80. 7O loo and according 10
official record. l25 per cent. Credible
lNpor,s assert that lS6 per cent was
paid for money during the day.
An iGea cf the severity Of the losses
may b. gained from few specifica-
tiuns. Thus, American TooJcco fell an
extreme 2ua, Metropolitan 2oA, Poo
pies Gas Il, Sugar l9's. Continental
Tobacco llle. Tennessee Coal Il, Man
haitian g. and Leather preferred %,
all in the list Of industrials.
In the railroad As, such stocks as
Northwest, New York Centml GrRl
Northern preferred, Rock Island,
southern Pacific. Union Pacific Atch.
iscn preferred Northern Pacific, and
in fact, the most prominent and ac-
tive railroad stocks in the whole list
showed losses all the way from / to
. points
Rallies with the final easing down of
the money rate To per cent ran from
5 to 10 points. The days transaction
ran up to a totH of nearly 1,65O,OOJ
shares which is the record for days
business.
After the close of the exchange a
meeting of the clearing house commit.
tee wus called for II o'clock tomorrow
with the view of being prepared for
action in case OF further necessity.