Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-25

persistent as in Wall street. 1t is human
nature to dislike darkness and Wall street
finds the darkness decidedly unattractive.
Notwithstanding the common saying that
the speculative community loves mys-
terry. Sometimes it happens that the rear
reason is withheld from the public until
the purpose of some group of operators Is
accomplished, but some stock or another
has in the meanwhile been rising or falling.
the case may be, the people who asked
questions may not have received answers.
In stock speculation one-half the time
what is really sought is plausible ex-
cuse for buying or selling securities. and
information, true or false, is the most
plausible. This trait of the average specu-
lator is one of the things that the great
manipulators reckon on while conducting
campaigns of a certain character. "Rea-
sons?" said Mr. Keene once. what's the
use Of giving any if every other man nnds
one to suit by asking those VINO oon
know anything about it and the rest READ
the newspapers? But all the same, Mi.
Keene never went in for a big campaign
without having Warehouseful OF facts ana
figures in support of his market position.
When he tried to make success or ms
Southern Pacific pool he had a pamphlet
prepared at a cost of $4,000.
The demand for explanations is particu-
larIy keen in quiet times. The duiler the
market the more active the demand Tor ex-
plantations. In the last few weeks the dull
ness has been excessive. So narrow were
the fiuctua tons that the market was clearly
without definite tendency and therefore the
multitude was without definite opinions.
The stock market balance sheet showed Ut
tie difference between the factors calcu-
lated to advance and those calculated not
to advance prices. Inactivity Is the most
irksome thing the average American nnds
in life The rest cure, nevertheless. works
ND hoy va
in a business or industrial sense, is taking
the rest cure we have complaints from the
patients.
In the past few days the big men" have
permitted themselves to intimate that the
rest cure of the past few months has done
so much good that better times are not far
off. Perhaps the most interesting point
about such hints, after the prolonged peFioo
OF conservative silence, is the unexpressed
but evident belief that the recent reveal
tons of financial graft among the ihsioers
of a well-known life insurance company
and the exposures" OF frenZied hnanclal
writer's will be forgotten by the pubilc II
bounteous harvests make this agrlcuiturai
nation of ours prosperous ana as usual,
Needless of all save the present. IL Is
a not illogical belief, given the peculaarltles
of the national temperament. 1t IS sim,
ilarly logical to expect at least normal
crops. Once that is made certain say the
conservative fnanciers, we may look lof
higher security prices.
One of the explanations offered by op-
timists for the recent dullness was the ap-
sence of leadership. Now that Dun mar
ket this autumn Is so generally predlcted
the question of stock market leadership or
the absence of it becomes doubly interest
ing For many years Wall street was &C
customed to leaders. In the olu times, De
fore the country was as rich or as populous
as it is today personality told more strong
" than it now does. There were men. mas
terful, rich in money and in brains. VINO
found in the stock market neld OF pdt-
tIe Fisk and Gould, Woerishaffer, Drew,
Osborne Commodore Vanderbilt, Garrison
and others occupied place that nopooy
occupies today, because there are more rlch
men who are skilled in stock gambling
there are more stocks and more mllllohs
TO he picked up. We have plungers ga
lore men that at times operate heavily
enough on their individual account 10
make the market. But this lasts at the
most a few days. Men like John w. Gates
have followers To that extent they are
leaders. But the public does not trail
behind in sufficient numbers to make them
real commanders.
The last great leader Wall street had was
the late Roswell P Flower. He was the
greatest in the history of the New YORK
stock Exchange. Nobody before him ever
had such a following, people VINO knew
nothing of stock speculation, who mis-
trusted Wall street, but who followed BIND
" wherever Gov. Flower led; ana propaply
nohodv after him ever will command to the
same degree the public allegiance The
..Flower BOOM" of which, SO far as the
public considered, he was the anlmatlng
spirit was the widest up to that tlme ana
was only eclipsed by the absolutely mad
outburst of stock gambling eliminating IN
the Northern Pacific panic IN 1871: HoV.
Flower had many qualincallohs Ior tne
leadership other than purely HildHcidl- ihiS
close association with the greatest capltal-
ISIS in the United States was not What
made him popular with the public. 1t was
his business career, his political training
his personality. There Is not now liVlns
a Wall street man of whom so many pleas
ant anecdotes could be told as of him Inc
public conceived him as being one OF then,
selves risen to a high place by pralns anu
blunt honesty; hence they trusted him as
they have not trusted others who are pos
sibIy as honest and certainly as able as
Gov. Flower.
After his death we had the boom or
l900-19O1 which was far greater than the
Flower boom. There was no single iead-
ership Pools and cliques of financiers each
took care of their several specialties Ihey
worked in harmony because they exchanged
views on the business situation as wen
as on the stock market, whence the sem
blance to a vast conspiracy against an
ignorant but rich public of which so much
was written at the time. After the United
States Steel Corporation was formed Mr..
Morgan naturally had to look after It's
market career, and he hired Mr.. heene TO
handle the manipulation of the new shares
But there was a boom in other stocks. Mr..
Hartman and Kuhn, Loeb q Co. took care
that Union Pacific did not lag. Mr.. Hill
was busy with the purchase of the Burling-
ton by the Great Northern and Northern
Pacific. but if he did not look at the ticker
somebody else did for him. The BerWind
pool in Atchison was busy at home ana
abroad and so through the list. leader
was not needed because the public did not
wish to follow, but to plunge bhndiy.
That same boom made so many men SO
fabulously rich that today there is more
than one who could be leader If there
were a real call for one. The last bull
market which came after the depression OF
1903 was not the result of determined lead
ership by any one man, though 1t Is likely
that the stupendous purchases OF various
stocks by Mr.. William Rockefeller did as
much as anything else to convince the pub
lie that the decline was over and a. rise
might be expected but the public was not
aware that it was Mr.. Rockefellers opera
lions to which the credit was due. Yet to-
day. because the stock market has been
duII for a few weeks the talk of the need
of leadership is heard as though 1t were