The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-27
AMONG THE BUSINESS MEN.
Ranking and Investment News and
Gossip of Importance.

The matter that has attracted the
greatest amount of interest in the local
financial world during the past week mas
been ;he activity in Washington Traction
and Electric bonds, together with the aide
lights on this activity developed in the
gossip of the street, and in the rlb-
LEGATION of a long article in a news
paper yesterday morning. Washington
banks and financial institutions gen
orally are the owners Of these bonds.
in addition TO the holdings OF inGt-
viduals. and their decline in price from
par to below 60 during the past year hes
been necessarily Il matter OF the utmost
Importance Their rally early last week
from IS to So was also very important.
especially as 1t was learned that insiders
of the company we're buying the bonds.
Yesterday the newspaper article alluded
to appeared. 1t purported to give inside
facts regarding the alleged depiorsble fl
uancial condition OF the syndicate. 1t ives
such gloomy story as might have been
written by person that did not believe
the Washington Traction and Electric
bonds were worth 10. or worth anything,
in fact. This article naturally was also
it frightened many holders of these bonds
and of other securities of the syndicate
very badly. These are the facts on the
surface. the developments that anyone
has been able to see.
There arc number of F Street rumors
and suggestions that are worth mention
ing In view of these facts. 1t is sug-
gested that the article in question was in
spired, and it is limited that it was in
spired by some interest which wished the
price of the bonds to decline. The only
reason suggested why any interest should
wish the price to decline is that this same
interest also wishes to buy them in at the
cheapest possible figure. As collateral
evidence CT the reasonableness of this
theory il is suggested that the earnings
statements published in the article al
luded to were those of full year ago. al
though the report for the past year is now
ready to be sent to Congress. II is said by
a high authority that this report will
make a showing very much better than
that OF a year ago. Net earnings are said
to have been nearly % per cent better. The
figures given in the article in question
were published in The Times, and in other
newspapers and were known 10 all finan-
cial men in January. 1900. They are a re-
hash simply. They were published yester-
day in such a misleading way, however.
that anyone not familiar with the facts
might suppose them to be the figures now
ready to be sent to Congress by the COM
pany.
Another statement made by an excellent
authority is that important interests have
been buying the bonds steadily for several
days 1t is said that this buying was
what sent the price upward so rapidly
from below 50 to e5 last week. The sug-
gestion regarding this fact is that perhaps
the price OF the bonds went up too rap
idly under the influence of this buying
to suit the wishes of the interest in ques-
tion and that therefore the newspaper
story alluded to was inspired in order to
keep back the advance or even perhaps to
break the price below its previous lowest
level.