Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-04
INSIDE OF WALL STREET
Sentiment in the Stock Market.-Lae Failures Due tc
Lack Of knowledge Of Public Feeling.
By EDWIN LEFEvRE.

: u " q ~ ~ " "
men. This was of more value to him as
stock operator than his experience and
ability as a flnancier. Many men could
have been just as valuable directors Of the
Rock Island or the Peoples Gas or the Fed
eral Steel. or the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
and other OF his companies but few could
have equalled him as stock market leader |;
at AL events none has. He knew how the
publics mind worked and that told him
what he might or might not do or even
attempt to do. He was reproaehed more
than once for the feebleness of his sup
port in a declining market. But he knew
the measure Of his strength beside the
strength of the public and the insignificance
OF the individual alongside Of the great mob.
frightened public cannot be checked in
stantly by any man nor by any dozen men.
He influenced sentiment, but 1t took time
to do it, and he had happy knack of using
phrases, inelegant perhaps. but often cpl
grammatic, and always calculated to stick
in the hearers mind At the time of the
free silver scare just before the defeat of
Bryan started the boom Wall street was in
the depths OF depression. 1t was not alone
the stock gamblers who were in the dumps,
but careful business men, whose knowledge
of finance and political economy made them
realize what silverite victory might mean
Their fears were proportionately keen. One
of them informed Governor Flower that he
was thinking of converting his property into
cash and the cash into gold. He was a
man whose name appears in print very
OFTEN and whom his associates treat with
much respect. The governors reply in
tone of voice that could be heard yards
away was: You are the third old woman
who has told me the same thing today"
And he laughed The man did not laugh
But he did not sell his property In time
wall street, like the rest of the country
recovered its sanity.
The burden of Wall streets complaints
for the past few months has been that the
puphc Is not in the market. The country
is prosperous enough. Taking 1t all in all
business Is good. There may be let up
here and there, but 1t is natural and does
not in all probability presage a turn for
the worse But stocks are not cheap, so
that a man may hesitate either to bty or
TO sell them with equal wisdom. But the
pubic attitude is one of apathy Senti-
ment is not particularly cheerful; it Is not
particularly pessimistic Net result no
Speculaslo The big men" succeeded in
their efforts, begun in 1903 after the period
OF depression and decline, TO advance Sc
curity prices. The public's purchases made
the Dull campaign successful. When the
buying power was exhausted the efforts
ceased; that is, the ADLER magnates have
not tried to push things further in that
direction. The publcs inactivity has lasted
no" some months. The market has had its
ups ana It's DOWNS but the speculative pub
lie nipbies have been faint The dullness
seems to have become chronic The query
OF the average observer of the stock mar
ket mas been: When will this end? The
problem before the great manufacturers and
distributors of securities is the same.
X
The strongest financial interests In the
United States believe sincerely and abso-
luteiy that there is nothing in the general
situation to cause any uneasiness to the
most timid investor. But for some time past
h1 hna
OF the Wall street public. 1t is perhaps
putting it too strongly to say that they
nave viewed this apathy with alarm but
none the less, nearly all of them have at
one time or another confessed inability to
gauge exactly just what effect such things
as rhe Equitable Life quarrel has had on
IN. me Pubic nina; Coming at a time when
the reading pubic throughout the country
mad been bombarded with all sorts of anti
graft literature, the Milwaukee bank de-
falcatlon, the Hyde-Alexander feud ETC.
We're serious. The public has heard nothing
put graft, graft, graft these many months
municipal politics is a synonym for cor
ruptlon State politics are made to appear
every whit as bad. In business we hear
nothing but the abuses of the trusts which
are daily violating laws human and di-
vine, by the score. In high finance the graft
is as bad as anywhere else. Respected
names are banded about recklessly, and
men in high places are all but called
thieves. The professional spectators of
smaller caHber do not feel that the pub
lie mas grown stubbornly distrustful of Sc
curltles and the makers thereof. The
American pubic has a remarkably short
memory, but the great powers of the finan-
cial world have wondered how long the
public will remember this time and how
deeply 1t has felt the effect of the recent
revelations real or alleged. What will make
sentiment once more optimistic to the point
OF Justlfying an aggressive bull campaign
on big scale is what none knows The
bellef that good crops will make securities
worth more is economic. not Dsyschologi-
cal. IL there is a dstrust it must be re-
moved. So far as the big men" can see
time and continued prosperity alone can
90 IT. But, II by some stroke of genius a
stimulating influence could be discovered
important in a business sense but above
everything picturesque enough to appeal to
the imagination Of the public, the same re-
suit could be reached overnight 1t might
nave been clever move to allow the i'm
preston to spread that the financial giants
OF this country were on the verge of a
titanic tight like that for the possession of
the control of the Northern Pacific in Nav.
1871 and then before a panic could start
to come out with a magnificent story of
peace. Sentiment, that is speculative SEN
timent, 1t now looks will change only grad
ually, always provided agricultural prosper
Ity lnsures good times all around unless
the imagination of the great American peo-
pie Is fired by one deal or announcement
calculated to make the public remember
that 1t has pocketbooks to fill and that
the ticker sometimes does the work with
neatness and dis:atch