The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-04
WALL STREET LOSSES.
What Some of the Magnates Have
 to Say.

r0 say.
 New York Times.
 Theories as to what caused Mondays record breaking slump of stocks and as to what would be the outcome were plentiful in Wall street during business hours and among the brokers of the Waldorf Astoria at night. There were few, however, who were willing to ex- press themselves, and most of these few confessed to a lack of definite knowl- edge.
 Jacob H. schifg of the banking firm of Kuhn. Loeb & Co, said late in the af- I ternoon:
 Tt is simply a fever which must run | Its course. Just as we had buying fever two years ago. and even last year, ! so the selling fever has now taken hold ! of the people and reason counts for noth- ing. No matter what may be said as to the causes which have brought about the present situation, prevailing conditions throughout the country do not justify the existing great decline in substantial securities. The time will come when people will wonder how conditions such | as we see now could have existed. Tt does not appear likely. that the | much feared money stringency vill ma-
 terialize. In fact, money is abundant | now. only those who control the supply | are afraid in the uncertain state. of af-
 
 is that we have superabundant supply | of money on daily call, while time mon- | ey cannot be had in large amounts. | ''But this will change, especially as 1t
 Is almost certain that with the inability
 of corporations to finance their require ments general business throughout the | country must, after a time, fall off. and when that moment arrives we shall have | @ large amount of funds seeking employ | ment These surplus funds will to some l extent determine the value of ours for ordinary purposes. euperabundant volume of currency, and we shall again witness | an increased demand for securities. So that 1t is not at all unlikely, though this may seem paradoxical, that when rail- road earnings begin to decrease because | of reduced general business, the value of railroad securities will again begin to increase."l
 Around the corridors of the Waldorf | Astoria there were many groups of brok- l CTS, talking excitedly about the days do- ings, for some time after the dinner hour. Some said its inexplicable." 9th CTS talked of mysterious influences that had been 'gunning' for fnanciers of prominence. and there were not few to hold the view that one or more men | of prominence in Wall street had suffer- | ed disaster in the slump that seemed to l reach its climax yesterday. The names of | LWO lHlucutldl were DdHQleQ aDOut | generally, but without the disclosure of | anything definite to warrant the reports | of trouble.
 James R. Keene, who had not been | down to his office for several days until yesterday. was seen in his apartment | during the evening.
 'I can't explain 1t at all." he said in answer to a question as to what he thought was the cause of the depression J in prices. 'It appears to be inexplica- ble."
 MT. Keene added that the condition of the country at large certainly ought | not to cause such a market. T don't know any reason for it-that | is all I can say" he concluded. Vice President A. Oppenheim of the Chicago Great Western Railway said: You may rest assured of one thing | all these securities are going to return | to their intrinsic value; if they have de- | parted from 1t, soon or later. Sometimes they go to prices above their real value;
 sometimes they are far below it. Nobody
 need think they are going to remain
 either too high up or too far down for
 a very long time. certainly think there
 is to be an end of Sthis sort of market
 before many days. I don't see how 1t l could last much longer"
 | What do you think has caused it?'
 MT. Oppenheim was asked.
 Some of the big banking institutions
 could tell you. if they wished to do so,''
 he replied. My opinion-and 1t is not
 worth anything, by the way-is that
 some people have been forced to gel
 rid of the stocks they were carrying They had more than they could manage
 They have had to unload
 E. Rollins Morse. banker. of Wall
 street. the Boston branch of whose firm
 has acted as correspondent for J. P. Morgan 6 Co.,. fin that city. declared that he could not solve the market puzzle.
 T haven't been in it," he said. I'm
 glad of it. too. Yes, there may be lots | of theories about what has caused the
 present conditions, but even theories are
 being abandoned now. And I can tell
 you theories are not all Wall street men l nr. Inninnr in fhaan Air,naa