The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-25
STOCKS DRIFTING INTO STRONG HANDS Buyers Not Aggressive in Any
 Quarter of Market INDUSTRIAL PANIC OVER Moraan.Rockefsller Battle Due to Pro. tracted Decline in stocks-RusseII
 Sage Is No Longer Factor
 in Wall Street.
BY w. e. fIcHoLAs.

New York. october 24.-Many things go
 to prove that there has been going on for
 some time a quiet and large accumulation
 of stocks in strong hands. Bear cam
 paigners have been unable to drive the
 railroad list to new low levels. Buyers
 are not aggressive in any quarter and 1t
 is plainly not their purpose to encourage
 bull speculation. The plan as developed Is
 to take offerings on the breaks, but not
 to bid for the properties. This has en- couraged the bears to keep out extensive
 short lines with expectations of further
 breaks. It thus happens whenever the
 market takes an appearance of weakness
 it looks very, very weak-sick almost un-
 to death. On the rallies sentiment un-
 dergoes sudden and remarkable transfor-
 nation. This peculiarity is due largely
 to the fact that the bears become more
 aggressive as the prices fall away and
 their offerings increase in volume as quo-
 tations near the bottom. When they are
 brought up with sudden turn they be-
 gin buying back their stocks and as the
 fact is revealed that the supply is not
 large their efforts become more eager
 until the rally Is about to culmnate when
 they fan over each other in their efforts to cut their losses short without another moments delay. The professional traders have found the market full of whipsaws, that is to say full of temptations to sell at the bottom and buy back at the top
 The professional element has been badly punished during the last two or three
 weeks on account of the deceptive appear ances which confronted them day by day.
 They get weak at the wrong time and strong at the wrong time. In this respect they are not widely different from the
 rankest outsiders of lambs" as they are jeeringly called by the talent.
 
 Rich men who are experienced in the ways of Wall Street recovered their nerve when it was found that surplus capital was accommodating here. They discovered
 that borrowers of the better class were
 holding aloof and taking in sail, whereas
 few months ago the scare was with the lenders who relentlessly called In loans and the alarm was shifted to the other party. Meantime there had been going on a steady liquidation of securi- ties and decline in prices. This led to a gradual shifting of conditions and very soon the owners of money learned that
 they would either have to let their funds lie idle or reinvest them in property that ~-~~
 decline in the securities market began
 money was bringing 6 per cent and even higher. while stocks and bonds were sell ling on a and 31s per cent basis Now the situation is the reverse money is again cheap and stocks and bonds offer the best returns. Consequently the cash is going back into the better class of these
 securities and to low grade stocks and
 bonds offering a speculative promise of advance Confidence is unmistakably re-
 turning to Wall Street. The line of dis trust and apprehension has moved west ward and the further it travels in that
 direction the more indistinct it becomes. There Is no distrust nor lack of confidence west of the Mississippi and very little west of the Ohio state line.
 In regard to the industrials 1t may be said that while there is a general ex- pectation of lower rates in some of them the feeling is growing that the panic is over in that quarter and that permanent recovery may be looked for ere long, The slump carried the prices of many industrial securities too low and those
 who are familiar with the properties on
 which they are based are taking hold of them again in moderate way.