Omaha daily bee., 1902-05-06
THREE FIRMS co TO WALL
Large Stock Brokers Announce Their In
ability to Meet Obligations.
MARKET NOT SURPRISED At cOLLAPsts
opens Under Appreciation of Pending
Failures sRd Readily Gives way
when sales for Suspended
Houses Begin.

NEW YORK, May 5.-The Developments
Of the latter half Of last week In Wall
street. in connection with the stocks Of the
Dominion Securities company. the Rutland
Railroad company and the Hackensack
Meadows company, resulted today In the
announcement In rapid succession Of the
suspension Of Stock exchange brokerage
firms. s
The first firm to declare inability to meet
obligations was Onenbach a Moore. Henry
Bros. and Lockwood, Hurd & Co. followed
rapidly. oftenbach & Moore we're known
principally as traders In what we're known
as "Webb-Meyer" securities, and the an
n~ouncement was made Saturday that they
had experienced some dificulty in secur-
ing loans to enable them to carry stocks
for the interest which they represented.
On Saturday afternoon, however, a state
ment was made in behalf OF the firm to
the effect that temporary arrangements had
been made and that Il was hoped funds
might be obtained today to pay on obIigs-
lions and continue business.
Today's suspension shows, however. that
these hopes were not realized. The onices
Of onenbach & Moore were not opened for
business at all today. Mr.. Gordon Of
Henry Bros, whose suspension followed
that Of offenbach 6 Moore, was a director
Of the Dominion Securities company.
Market Opens Weak.
The stock market opened weak with the
knowledge that q number OF failures were
imminent Support was accorded the mar
ket and there were some failures, but when
sales uLder the rule for suspended houses
were made the market gave way again.
The high-priced stocks which had been
under recent manipulation were the sever
est sufferers. Rutland preferred dropped IA
points, Westinghouse Electric 10, New York,
New Haven q Hartford 8, North American,
81, Northwestern and Tennessee Coal 3.
The coalersi were affected in addition by
fears Of a miners strike. Delaware q Hud-
son dropped Al, Reading 3 and others
smaller amounts. Losses of Ito 3 points
were quite general throughout the list. Be-
fore the first hour had elapsed support
ing orders were effective again and there
were some. substantial rallies.
On the curb where non-stock exchange
securities are traded In there was an ex-
cited group of traders trying to make sales
In "Webb-Meyer" stocks. Dominion securi-
ties, which sold last Friday at 11sh and on
Saturday at 70, was offered today at 20. but
the best bid was 20. Later 1t was offered
at so and the bid declined to 10. Hacken-
sack Meadows was offered at 40, with no
bid. On Friday It sold at 70.
DR.. seward Webb. president of the Rut-
land Railroad company, arrived here today
from shelbourne Falls, VT. 1t was said at
his ONCE that a statement on his behalf
would be issued some time during the day.
Say they Are solvent
Henry Bios. made an announcement after
their suspension to the; effect that their
embarrassment would. be but temporary;
that they were solvent and that they had
suspended, Tor the time being In order to
protect their customers.
F-No statement oSrIabiltties or assets ac-
companied the Suspension notices. and It
was said such statements might not be OBJ
tainable for several days.
Up to IL O'Clock there had been no service
Of the order OF arrest obtained on Satur-
day against A. L Meyer. ''"'
DR.. Seward Webb was in conference dur
ing the morning with A. L. Meyer, Henry
L.. Sprague. In attorney, and Benjamin p.
Moore of onenbach & Moore.
AdTiance Bush IL the assignee for Henry
Bros. and E. T.. iPerrine lie assignee for
Lockwood, Hurd & ca. Neither of the
assignees has yet made a statement. Be-
fore noon call money eased OF to 8 per
0ChNs ~ ava Va NhO olAh DAuAn vi
the fnancial district indicates that these
institutions have scarcely more than pass
ing interest In the events Of the morning.
It is reported. however. that a number Of
New England banks hold Webb-Meyer Sc
~curities as collateral.
Announcement Is made that DIR. Webb
has resigned from the International Power
directory. President Hoadley said that
the resignation Will doubtless be accepted.
Makes Authorized Statement.
Mr.. Prall Of the Stock exchange firm of
webb & PraIl made this statement on the
authority, he said, of DR.. Webb:
All the Rutland railroads preferred stock
sold by DR.. Webb last June, certificates of
which are still in his name and amount to
$500 shares, will be paid for in cash at
los by ]. w. Davis & Co. of 100 Broadway.
Mr.. Moore OF the firm Of offenbach q
Moore, when seen early this afternoon, said
that no assignee had been appointed for
his Arm and that tho suspension would be
only temporary.
]. Edward. Simmons, president OF the
Fourth National bank. mad this comment:
suit In conservatism instead OF the contin-
uance of wild speculation. i think the
storm has blown over.
President Hendrix Of the National Bank
Of Commerce expressed himself In similar
terms.
II. ]. WEIR, OF the firm Of Henry Bros.
& Co.. said that on Friday they received
an order to buy 1000 shares Of curb stock
! to be delivered to onenbach 4 Moore today.
The suspension Of that firm prevented de-
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