The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-11
Total price of q
stocks .......... 2,413 2,z56 10
Average prices
1f efna

of q stocks. 80 80 %
The lowest average market value of
this group of stocks last year was sos
per share and the highest $50; the highest
range of values being reached near the
close of the year. This shows an increase
during 1900 of 40 per cent in the amount
of loans required for carrying stocks.
Comparing now current prices with the
highest values of 1900, we find a further
rise of Sc per share, with no indications
of any present reactionary tendency.
This is certainly an entirely phenomeNaIs
condition of investment values. How it Is
to be satisfactorily accounted for is the
question. it is not in any degree eX-
plainable from an unusual ease in the
money market, for money has been ac-
lively employed rather than otherwise.
True there was at the opening of this
investment, but that movement had It's
full effect by the middle of January and
should have been followed by reaction
rather than a further advance. 1t Is
also true that the earnings of the rail-
roads have shown healthy condition,
but no improvement that warrants rise
of stocks. True, further, the confirma-
ton of the gold basis by the reelection
of President Mckinley was a strong
bull factor, but that had been consid-
erably discounted in advance of the cleo
ton, and the latter event was not in it
self of such transcendent moment as to
warrant a rise of Is per cent in the prn-
cipal values of investments.
The chief cause of this sweeping and
persistent boom has been the cOnSum-
nation of series Of financial deals, "
covering immense amounts of capital and
calling for the manipulatiVe cooperation
of the most influential capitalists and
bankers of the country. These operations
needed the support of a strong bull
speculative sentiment, and the managers
Of the IDEALS" and the leading Specula OF 8
have found it to their mutual interest TO
encourage the boom. Nor has the con-
summation of the billion steel consolida-
ton so far been followed by any con-
spicuous realizing movement; on the
contrary, certain prominent cliqued
stocks are still advancing. There is
much talk of further important amalga-
nations impending, which, whether true
er --lt. has for the present at least it's
effect in keeping the excitement alive and
vigorous. At the moment, the course of
the stock market is mainly dependent
upon how long it may serve the conven-
fence and interests of banks and bankers
to defer the final winding up of the great
deal transactions. They may be expect
ed to be the first to get out of the mar
ket, and when their supporting hand is
withdrawn nothing is more likely than
a hurried realizing among the clfques
sMaklng the most liberal allowance for
the various factors In national conditions
conducive to rising value in our in
Vestments no prudent mind will pretend
that we have made recent real prog
reSS equivalent to the extraordinary rise
in the value of investments All other
Things being equal, a great increase In
the national wealth means a reduction
in the rate of interest and a decline in
the interest rate is no reason why the
market value of the principal of invest
ments should advance For this reason
any further important rise in prices
must be regarded as abnormal and as
only contributing to the forces that are
laying the basis for an important reac-
tionary movement In market values later
on, and especially in stocks dependent on
the recent great consolidat tons of indus
trial corporations.