Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16

in Wall street insists that the PUBLIC 10
not in the market today. He cannot for
get the spring of 1901. Then the plungers
We're winning millions minute and the
''pikers' were growing rich daily-and
ceasing to be pikers. There was scarcely
a hamlet in the United States that did not
number among its Inhabitants several
stock operators Wall street saw some
three million days. One house-to
be sure it was one of the leading commits
sion firms in the city-bought or sold Ior
customers $4,000 shares in five hours. =.
great deal of it must have been -eighth
business" that is, the full commission
of $3.50 per hundred shares was charged.
If all was for customers not members OF
the stock exchange it's earnings that dfty
were S11S75. 1t was the house through
which traded plungers OF the hrst maSnl-
tude like the late William c. Whitney, the
Moore Bros, Charles I. Morse ana others;
There were many firms that did 10000 and
$4,000 shares in one day; and even more,
for such records for single house as
1900 and 100000. or even 1lo.ooo shares
in one day were not as uncommon as you
might think. Mr.. James r. keene told me
that while he was conducting the Duii,
manipulation in the United States steer
shares for Mr.. ]. Pierpont morgan ne solu
in one day during the boom 30o,o0o shares
of Steel common and preferred. Inis
meant that he sold not far from s2o,Voo-
900 worth of those two stocks alone IN
one bushes day. or at the rate of about
a million dollars worth every fifteen min
utes. 1t is difficult to decide which was
the more wonderful Mr.. keene 5 aolil.is ,
as a manipulation or the wealth OF coun-
try whose citizens could gamble on such
a scale.
Tremendous Sales.
Not long ago, when the question was
discussed whether it could have peen pos
chile for a man owning fifty-odd millions,
market value, of stocks to have disposed Oh
the ertire block in the 1901 boom and not
wa
dissenting voice among well-informed Wall
street men. All agreed that it was pos
sihle Furt.:er investigation showed that
not only was it possible, but that it had
been done. One firm alone SOLD LOT one
man sol ,375.0tO worth. and got the caSh ICE
it and only the man and the firm knew Il
then, and only the man and the nrm ano
the writer of this know it today. W nat the
steel magnates' did was not SO ciosely
guarded a secret. For example 1t vas
common gossip at the time that Mr. ID. u.
Reid. Mr.. w. B. Leeds and the Moore
Brothers received S1i0CC00C0 par value OF
United States Steel stocks for thelr nolu-
ings in the various companies like American
Tin Plate and others which went INTO lhe
big corporation. They sold enough to ahy
the actual majority of the Rock island
stock and as Mr.. keene was trying 10 pat
I'D the United States Steel shares at the
time and in making market for Mr. hiof-
gan's syndicate had also to make it ior the
Moores and the SchwabS and the frlcks
and the Phppses and others. the magnitude
of his undertaking can be appreciated. His
remarks at the time were memorapi". lhey
need not be repeated.
Wall street thinks of those days and
swears the public is not in the market Ii
forgets those days, say in 1897, wnen the
nublic was not in the market; when daily
total of transactions on the Stock Exchange
| of 1C0CGO or 10000 shares was not thought
so bad when the Stock Exchange was
wroth at the Consolidated Exchange be-
cause the latter did a little business, but
| that little should have gone to the big
| board" when the bucket shops were forced
| to close because they were taking dimes
| that belonged to the legitimate brokerage
concerns when seats on the New YORK
Stock Exchange were selling under $4,000
Some time after the Flower boom start
| ed in 1898 or 1899 there was a great ado
when 1t was announced that the Federal
: Steel pool which had been trying to put VI
prices and had been checked by big and
mysterious selling, at last had a clear track
because a block of $1,000 shares had been
bought at private sale from Mr. John w
Gates He was the mysterious seller. The
stock was quoted at about 81. For Mr.. Gates
today 10 buy or sell 60,O00 shares of low
priced stock is such trfie that he couldn
expect the newspapers to take more thar
passing notice of it. At the time Mr.. Gates