The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-11
MANY Big LOSERS
SLUMP IN VIRGINIA-CAROLINA HIT
LOCAL CAPITALISTS.
MAY BE QUARTER OF MILLION.
CONFIDENCE OF INVESTORS LED
THEM TO GO IN DEEP.

Belief That the MISUNDERSTANDING
would Have 10 Be a Paying In
Vestment Led Them Too Far in
Many Cases-HastE Purchase by
Wholesale of Poorly Equipped
Mills Mt Fancy Prices Given as
One of the Causes of the slump
Quotations Were on Again Yes
terday Mt Closing.
If half the statements that are being
made are true the recent slump of Vir-
ginia-Carolina stock has been seri-
Gus blow to local capitalists.
The amounts lost in Savannah are
variously estimated from 100000 to a
quarter of a million dollars. TAe for
mer figures are probably more correct.
In all events it can be stated and stated
positively that people here have been
hit and some of them have been hit
hard. as they were all believers in
this Southern trust, and put their
money in without reserve. There are
only a few wise ones reported in this
section, and the gains they made in
selling were not drops in a bucket to
the amounts lost by the bulls in the
decline. These latter were simply hug
ged to a finish. and all their efforts
failed to gore their opponents even
little bit.
The Virginia. Carolina appealed very
strongly to Southern people. Coming
into the field with a lagge purse and
a generous hand, it bought up all OPP
position, and paid fancy prices for what
it got. There was no gouging or
crowdinS to the wall. 1t was a case
of the independent manufactures OF
fertilizer or oil, naming his own price
for his plant and getting it. Such n
spirit on the part of a corporation was
n new thing, and many who had
his all tied up in an Improbable busl-
ness looks on the misfortunes of the
Virginia-Carolina with commiseration.
Naturally the corporation secured a
whole lot of alleged inferior plants
when they went into buy them by the
wholesale, and mill after mill had to
be dismantled and the machinery sold
out as junk. 1t is claimed that the
great price paid for so much worthless
material was the cause of the down.
fall of the stock.
There were few cities in which the
virginia OdrOIlDa STOCK LOOK more
strongly than it did in Savannah, and
holders of stock here thought that it
was simply obliged to advance, and
temporary checks did not shake their
confidence in the least. II looked like
a thorough monopoly of a great in
dustry and they could not figure out
anything like what has happened UNI
der any combination of circumstances.
It is the old story of the unexpected
suddenly doing business, and with the
same old results.
Much of the stock held in Savannah
was purchased at from $50 to $40 a
share, and Saturday it closed at $23.
Yesterday it went down to SPA. where
it closed. 1t would be easy to es-
innate how much money is gone if 1t
could be authoritatively stated how
many shares were held here. There
is one redeeming feature about the en-
tire transaction as far as this city is
concerned. None except those who
could stand the losses have suffered.
There are some heavy individual
losses reported. One well-known gem
tleman is said to have dropped $780,
600. These are several who are report
ed to have lost few thousand.