The Cairo bulletin., 1904-12-13

/. TOM LAWSON AND HIS CAME ]:
Wall Street Wonders Whether He Led
or Was Led.

or Was Led.

| dire foreDodlng, nothing happened.
In The afternoon Lawson came out
with a statement that he had found
on investigation that The reports
were moi true. thlt he dia moi own
ans sieA lines OF stock. and Thai
thor, fore he could net seil them
ibid ii strike any one a. peculiar
that il should be possible Tor Il brok-
er TO have not even an approximate
idea OF his own holdings? II so. then
wha, was the purpose of the whole
! rf0rmancea There were many
heads in Wall street who asked this
question and wac argued that mat.
ter out for themselves without arriv-
ing at any satisfactory conclusion.
Events move swiftly in Wall street.
ana the week after THANKSGIVING the
street had forgotten all about the
Lawson prayer ana the succeeding
incidents.
Ii was after this that the gseat
activity IN Amalgamatea Copper de,
yeloped Once more Lawson came
mao evidence. He advised every
one 10 buy copper Il would cross
50, and every one had better buy it
before il crossed IS, because after
that il would jump to par so fast that
HE advance would resemble the pro
verbal blue streak Hundreds Of
thousands of shares changed hands
on this advice. During the week end
cd Dec there were traded in 49,
1926 shares in narrow range be-
tween S0ia and SEA- Lawson pre-
dicted that on Friday, Dec. 2, an an
nomcement affecting the value of
the stock would be made, The an
was the record dividend
by Inc Boston and Montana company
which is owned by the Amalgamatei
Copper company. Many men in Wall
street then asked how il was that
Lawson had advance information of
this action bur this question was
never answered,
On Tuesday noon last the presi
dents message was due TO become
public. Was it only an accident that
on that very morning appeared the
first of Lawson lamboyant warn
Ings to all stockholders of Amalga-
mated to sell their holdings, as the
price would smash? This was
sudden change OF front by Lawson
and ii fairly took the spectators
breath away. They had really no
right 10 be surprised. for every mar
ket leader that ever lived. and no
matter in what market he operated,
has ever done the same, That sud
len change OF front. the announce
ment over night that he had sold his |
or covered his short sales, !
has in fact always been one of the
chief sources of revenue to the lead /
or, for, having prepared himself for
he new position, he has been able |
o reap the full benefit of any change |
n prices which his change of front |
might effect
There can be no doubt that many !
believed what Lawson advertised /
Many spectators sold out their long |
holdings. Others still went short of |
he market, but this alone could not |
have brought about the collapse If |
he support TO the market had not |
and mysteriously disappear
3D. There had been a suspicion for |
some days that the support to the |
aarket was of a perfunctory sort. |
Wednesday il became apparent to
he brokers on the floor that the sup. |
port had been entirely withdrawn,
and Thursday when the belated sell /
3rs appeared and when az least l.
100000 shares of long stock were |
brown over, the lack Of support eX
,ept at a very low level became APP |
parent even to the outsiders. This |
ack Of support has not yet been sal
sfactorily explained. II is a fac,
however. that stocks purchased II
quantity some ten points below the
evel where they might have been |
sold the week before would show a
very acceptable profit to whoever
nay have scld and repurchased them.
This part of the collapse is at
east as queer as the creduity which