Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-17
THE INSIDE OF
WALL STREET
BY EDWIN LEFEvRE.

At last the denizens of the ticker quarter
have been obliged to recognize that there
was a genuine bull market ''in their midst"
Whatever happens now, however soon a
crash may come, the fact remains that
there has been a bull market. The differ
ence between this crazy boom and other
crazy booms is just this, that the present
craze has been confined to a few stocks or
groups. There have been many days dur
ing which one and half or one and three
quarter million shares changed hands. and
yet the general list was by no means as
active in proportion as the great total
would indicate. Three or four stocks con-
tributed from a half to three-quarters of
the mighty aggregate. And the conviction
has been forced upon protesting commu-
nifty that the capitalists or the spectators
responsible for some of the sensational in
cidents of the past few weeks, In the shape
of ten or twenty point advances, probably
had better facilities for judging the in
trinsic value of certain securities than the
great outside public, They also have had
far keener and holder appreciation OF the
speculative possibilities.
1t has been in many respects one of the
most remarkable markets In the history of
Wall street But the history of the pres
ent movement Is still In the making. 1t Is
the underlying human factor that is not
yet quite clearly understood. The person
ality Of the leaders of this latest bull cam
paign remains to be studied and their mo-
tives and methods analysed. There are sew
eral such leaders, new men in that they
have not long enjoyed their present emf
nence, though they have been big capital
lists for years. Their campaign is not yet
over. They have not sought newspaper
notoriety; they are not anxious for 1t.
Mr.. Ryan testified this week that his
philanthropic purchase of the Equitable
troll from James Hazen Hyde was pri-
marly prompted by his desire to avert
great crash. He also thought 1t would be
a public-spirited thing to debut that's an
other story. At the time the life insurance
storm began to gather there was not an
important financial Interest that was not
perturbed. 1t may be doubted If they all
thought, as Mr.. Ryan swears he did, that
q terrible panic would result from the reve-
lations of graft among the high insurance
officials, but 1t was certain that the effect
on the public mind would be deplorable To
snecuIate on whether Mr.. Ryan averted q
panic or not has merely an academic inter-
est There are many reasons why Mr.. Ryan
should particularly fear a panic and also
why he should have personally disliked to
see Mr.. Hartman save the community by
buying young Hyde's Equitable stock. These
reasons are pretty well understood In high
financial circles, and Mr.. Ryan Is, moreover,
decidedly unpopular with the average Wall
street man However, there Is little doubt
Notwithstanding the streets ribaId COM
ments at the time when Mr.. Ryan an
nounced his solicitude for the financial well
fare of tho community, including that of Mr.
Thomas Fortune Ryan, that the election
of Mr.. Paul Morton to the presidency OF
the Equitable and the housekeeping that
followed did much to restore confidence, as
well as to prevent the receivership that Mr..
Ryan justly feared. Az the life insurance
investigation progressed the publies interest
appeared to take the form rather Of keen
curiosity as to the methods and extent OF
the grating than of fears as to the solvency
Of the big companies,