The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-11-06
WARMED AGAINST
OVERCOME |DENCE
Severe Tests in Store for the
Speculative Security
Market.
FORECAST RE- 5 OF OUTCOME, RASH
FORECAST OF OUTCOME, RASH
Market Has Successfully Re
sisted Repeated Assaults, and
Feels Impregnable.

(special 10 rhe rimes-Dlspatch.)

(Speclul 10 Inc llWeS-l)lspalcll.)
NEW YORK, November b.-There APP
pears on the surface OF things no war
rantablo reason to III any way modify
the conclusion that the speculative Sc
curty market IA likely to be subjected
to como further severe tests Of It's sta
blllty, and that, too, ut nc very remote
date. TO attempt to forecast the out
come should be rash. Wall Street has
seen such wonderful strength upon each
recent occasion when pressure has been
applied, that n feeling OF confidence has
been engendered among tho professional
trading element This constitutes q pow
crful defense against the ordinary or
merely fransltory occur fences of id
verso nature, to which all speculative
markets are subjected
That confidence is Astounding upon tho
Part OF tho pool and clique operators is
,unn,istakable and that there Is justinca-
ton for a hopeful feeling as to the m
dustral and commercial future Is amply
enough demonstrated In the highly salts
factory fundamental conditions. 1t is
not altogether strange, either, that
recognition of the underlying conditions
manifested in tangible form in,highly fav-
oiablc corporations statements that IL
the United States Steel Corporation, for
instance, should have found due renec-
ton on advancing security prices,
1t is not confidence, but overconfdence:
rot speculative trading, but overtrading,
against which Wall Street has continu-
ally to be warned. Resisting, as the
market, successfully, repeated assaults
upon 1t, passing. as 1t has, upscathed,
through many trying developments. COM
ing UP srnllng as 1t has. after every
blow, 1t is not perhaps strange that the
trading element has grown to regard
the speculative fabric as impregnable to
all assaults. In this belief the smaller
fry have been encouraged by tile great
operators and the coalesced bankers,
many of whom have openly appeared as
the allies or employers Of the manipu-
lators, while numerous others have done
what they could by placing available
funds at the disposal Of gambling cliques.
1t does not require any special quail
flcat1ons for obseryance; or any high
Is developed or expert knowledge Of fin-
nnce or economies ito reach the conclu-
sion that 1T would have been utterly
impossible for Wall Street to have ex-
pcrienced the Wild and dangerous specu-
latiye movement OF the last week. unless
those who had engineered it had re-
ceved support from powerful banking
and financial interests
1t Is impossible for cash reserves in the
clearing house banks to have been drawn
down to only $2,354,275 above legal re-
quirements at the outset Of November to
the lowest point but one Of the fifteen
years. until banking funds had, without
let or hindrance, been poured into the
laps OF the stock operators, Not oil In
situations are reprehcnsible in like de-
grec for the outcome. but that the spec
ulaton and the boosting OF prices has
&l,o t.,
clear. Nothing else can explain the four
por cent figures for out OF town deposits
made by some institutions last week
Surely 1t Is r-cOnfdence that Is
Astounding that prompts mon to figure
upon still greater activity and still higher
prices In q security market Until the
money market Is strengthened, It Is but
to invite disaster to continue reckless
proceedings. such as Wall Street wit.
messed last week.
Entirely aside from tho weak banking
position, all caution and all conservatives
ness was thrown to the winds in attempt-
Ing to bull speculative stocks in the first
week in November with such revolution
airy developments and barbarous massa-
cres III Russia, which, despite some con-
cesslons wrung from the Gear through
fear. seem not fully adjusted yet. and
which clearly enough was reflected in
the unusual action Of the Imperial Bank
of Germany in raising Its minimum dis
count rate from to bis per cent. Surely
there must have been urgent necessity for
this precipitnte action, or 1t would not
have been taken on Saturday, when the
regular meeting day Is Monday. Al
ready Paris has madk overtures for
American gold, to prevent, IL possible,
further advance IN the Bank Of England
discount ratio and n further and possibly
greater unscttcment OF all European
money and discount markets,