Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-19

NEW YORK, December 1S.-Panic
conditions developed on the Stock Elk
change this afternoon with the impera-
tive need of money developed by the
violent contraction in values. Stocks
were being thrown over without the
slightest regard to the price they
would bring and at distressing sacrl-
flee of values. No end to the helpless
ness Of the situation seemed in sight,
when. in the last half hour of the mar
ket some $40, 900, 900 was offered on the
Stock Exchange by the concerted action
of the clearing house banks to force
the rate arbitrarily down to 6 per cent.
without regard to the distracted bid
ding at higher rates which was being
done by other brokers for distressed
operators. The collapse in the money
rate checked the decline and drove the
bears to cover. The ~recoveries pro-
duced by their urgent bidding were al
NEST 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
closing exceedingly irregular and I'M
settled. The excitement continued to
the end with sentiment looking for
ward anxiously for the development of
another day. The seriousness of the
crisis has called 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 interests, unless obstacles are
onnosed.
1t is considered a point gained to
have effected a cessation of the ruth
less sacrifice of values long enough
for a period Of consideration over
night, for the selling of stocks lad
unq~uestionably reached that stage
where ordinary consideration of pru-
dence or even of necessity had been
thrown to the wind and the sufferers
from the money stringency were I'M
loading their holdings, In
The Trua Panic Suirit
A pause of a few hours for consider
alton is likely in itself to do much
toward rectifying such a condition.
So far as actual news wa concerned
to-day, there was a suspension by a
newly organized trust company and
by a firm of bankers and brokers who
have figured as traders In stocks to an
extent of some Importance. Neither
event in itself would have been sutii-
cient to precipitate a crisis. But they
were supplemented with a whole crop
of wild and incoherent rumors which
spared no interests, however powerful,
long established and hitherto free from
suspicion it may have been. One
the gossip hat was flying about by
telephone, telegraph and by messenger
boy or by whispers and even by shout
ings in the Hobbies of the stock ex-
change, that the whole financial fabric
had beer undermined and was about to
tumble in ruins. Yet the day closed
with two failures above mentioned as
the sum total of disaster, so far as adj
mitted insolvency was concerned.
The reason for the widespread effect
upon sentiment Of the trust company's
suspension was that it was one of a
large number of institutions recently
formed on similar lines and which
have thriven upon the multiplying of
securities incident to the industrial
combinations as a class have been in
disfavor in Wall street for many weeks
past and in fact ever since spring.
The disfavor which is attached to them
in Wall street has been quite indis-
eliminate and based on many varying
considerations. The principal allega-
tons against them are o~ver-capital-
i%zation, exhorbitant prices paid for con-
stituent properties and vulnerability to
existing and threatened legislation
against combinations. It is evident
that in so large a number of combin-
atoms as have been made, these allega-
tons can scarcely apply to all alike.
But the sheep have not been separ-
ated from the goats in Wall street and
some Of the least fortunate Of
The New Combinations
aavs bean AFFILIATED With the trust COM