The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-03-15
The Big Dealers Left the Market
without Protection and the Bears
Seized the Opportunity.
MAY HAVE BEEN A CONSPIRACY
SAMPLE OF THE STORIES TOLD TO
EXPLAIN THE FALL In PRICES.
The Keenc-Harriman Fight Over Div
idends on Southern Pacifc-Oper-
atiOns of the Gates People.

Special TO the Indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK, March 1.-THE stock mar
ket has been subjected to terrific punish
ment Of late, and values were driven to a
lower level than that reached during the
murderous liquidation last autumn-a
slaughter that began in September and did
not end until nearly the middle of Decem-
Der. The bulls find 1t difficult to account
for the decline any other theory than
that OF drive by the bankers to force a
monetary stringency and thereby enhance
the lending value of their goods. The bears.
on the other hand. find what they believe
to be a legitimate explanation for the break
in the alleged overproduction of securities.
professed fears OF a monetary stringercy,
a supply OF currency inadequate for the
immense volume Of general business, and
symptoms of recession in the great wave of
prosperity. They insist that prices of Sc
curities have yielded because they were too
high and that the decline is merely a re-
adjustment of values upon a proper level
1t would be too harsh term to charge
the banking interests with having engaged
in cold-blooded conspiracy to depress
values In order to make dear money, but IL
is plain that the decline has met with the
capitalists. This is shown by the absence
from the city of nearly every important
market figure whose support of prices has
heretofore been a figure OF the situation.
and who have been recognized as uncom-
promising bulls. They left the market with
out protection against the attacks of the
bears, who took advantage of the circum-
stance to raid everything in sight. The
campaign has been led from the start down
to date by Mr.. James r. Keene, who, for
the preceding two years, was the acknowl-
edged bull leader and the personal repre-
sentative of Mr.. Morgan in the manipula-
ton of steel stocks and other securities
bearing the Morgan brand. Mr.. Keene
turned bear last fall, although his altered
position was concealed for long time He
Is not thought TO be a believer in continued
low prices, as his permanent and large in
tereStS are now the other way. He is an
immense holder of high-class stocks, and
he is understood to be the heaviest indi-
yidual owner of Southern Pacific shares.
The feature which Influenced him to be-
come a bear leader temporarily was the
dissolution of a number of underwriting
SyndicateS and the throwing of large blocks
of stocks and bonds on the market by dis
appointed members of such syndicates.
This unloading came simultaneously with
the announcement of a large number of
huge issues of new stocks and bonds by
railroad and Industrial corporations. The
temptation to attack the market was,
therefore, very strong, and Mr.. Keene was
unable to withstand it.
The latter part of February and the first
part of March usually form a period of
market depression. 1t is for the dark hour
just before dawn-the ending of winter and
yet too early for spring and another crop
year TO be born. In thirty days the entire
face of nature will be changed The green
which now covers the lower fringe of the
United States will envelop its entire area
nd 40 fry will fai rlx ont
upon another season Of crop planting.
The slump In prices and the attendant
excitement in the stock market gave ex-
cuse for all kinds of stories to account for
the phenomena. Nothing was too wild to be
given a hearing. One of the weird stories
af1oat was that the break in the market
was engineered for the purpose of enab-
ling Mr.. Morgan and Mr.. Keene to obtain
control of Union Pacific proper and there
by pay off a series of accumulated old
scores. So far as can be learned, the report
was wholly imaginative, but it, neverthe-
less, gave the credulous food for gossip for
several days. According to this remarkable
report, Mr.. Morgan saw In the fight be-
tween Mr.. Keene and Mr.. Hartman over
Southern Pacific, his opportunity for get
ting even with the Hartman party for the
Northern Pacific experience two years ago,
on the Western situation. The gossipers
would have it that Mr.. Morgan liquidated
| the bulk of his immense line of miscellane-
| Gus securities last fall, and found himself,
| as a result, extraordinarily strong in cash
| and able TO enter upon any kind of a cam
paign that might appeal to him. The ro-
mancerS building on this had Mr.. Morgan
| begin buying Union Pacific two months
| ago, and he is represented to have accumIi-
| lated vast line under cover of the furious
drives made against the property by Mr..
| Keene and his friends. So far as can be
learned, however, control of Union Pacific
house of Kuhn, Loeb q Co., and control
of that property carries with it Southern
| Pacific, 1t is, apparently, impossible for the
Harriman-Schiff MANAGEMENT to be dis
| lodged. 1t is undeniably true, however, that
| Mr.. Hartman is very unpopular man in
/ the transportation field. Even his closest
| associates freely criticise him. They ac-
| knowledge his ability as a railroad man
and financier, but consider him too arbi-
| trary and too little disposed to pay atten-
| ton to advice or counsel from those who
/ are identified with him in the ownership OF
| the properties he directs.
The open fight between Mr.. Keene and
Mr.. Hartman over the question OF divi-
dends on Southern Pacific stock has been
one of the disquieting factors in the mar
ket. 1t is always an alarming event when
the giants of the market fall out, and IL
was particularly so this time because OF the
prevailing nervousness. Mr.. Keene is ad.
mittedly the most adroit manipulation and
leader in the stock market. and his posi-.
ton must be always taken into considera.
| ton. A year ago he organized the stupen-
| dous pool in Southern Pacific which is tC
| be dissolved on the first of April next The
4 holdings of Mr. Keene and his friends In