The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-12-03
A DAY OF BIG FIGURES

/ 4 4 Z i
This is period of active speculation
in stocks, marked by the prominence
Of the pools. 1t is an age Of pools in
stocks. Wall street has its changes
from year to year, even in it's methods
of price manipulation. All things shift
about in commerce and finance, as in
society or politics, and from time to
time new phases appear. Were the
Washingtons or Jeffersons to come
back upon earth they might view with
some surprise the political methods
now operating. If Howe, Whitney or
Fulton could witness the working of
inventions, wonderful, but now so
common as to be passed almost without
notice, while everywhere in evidence.
their own efforts, great in their genera
ton, would appear but feeble. Equally
certain it is that if the great fnanciers
of generation ago, or the market ma
nipulators Of even q decade past, could
come back to their old haunts, they
would find themselves facing condi-
tions different from any they ever
knew.
Principally this difference would be
found in the magnitude OF tho opera
tions. Once, not so very long ago, a
million stood for something big in
Wall street. Today it is as unit only
in the counting Of the big things.
Hundred -million-dolla corporations
are very common. Billion-dollar corpo-
rations are not unknown. MI. Dill, the
noted corporation lawyer, says we have
reached a time Of reaction from the
creation Of corporate creatures so
i prodigiously large; that they are I'M
| wieldy and break of their own weight.
Yet the concentrating and piling UP
!, process goes on, in one form or an
4 other. -, .,.... 4<
We find the speculative end Of the
market taking it's cue from the in.
vestment end, and following the prin.
1 ciple that in unity there is strength
Here the principle takes the form Of
the pool. Pools are not entirely new
thing, but the big pools Of today are
unlike any ever seen. Instead Of loo
men buying 100 shares each, for specu
lation-which individual trade would be
no mean commitment in itself-these
Spectators are now more than likely
to join q pool. One man will represent
them. Their holdings Of 100000 shares
.. will be moved on or off the market il
such quantity as Judgment may die
tate. They have the power, thru oper
,, ating together, Of putting a weigh
upon the market, or of making a com
parative scarcity ola particular stool
at any time. Thus we hear Of the Read
ing pool, the Union Pacific pool, AM
: many others. gaag:a r.
Millions in securities are now handet
, around In a manner to make the trans
actions Of the ordinary little speculate
look very small and unimportant in
: deed, and we begin ito understand tn
power that these modern speculative
. pools may WELD in shaping the. price
Of the day. OF course, the pools ar
: not necessarily successful in oil cases
l The rule Of strength in unity is no
9 infexible. There is such a thing pos
; sible as little too much unity.
= " We learn, then, that certain poo
= holds $10,000,o00 or $2o,oo0,0o0, 20
2 even $500o0,0oO in stock of certai
y corporations, and we see the create
: difficulty Of forecasting the course Q
s the speculative market. The httl
u speculator Is like an eggshell agains
r a sledgehammer. We hear that tn!
5. very week Wall street man who hal
s pened to get wrong on Reading 10:
t 100000 in a day, and nothing :
It thought of it. The little Spectator doe
q not line up very well in that sort {
Is a game. AXE - 49, g. ...~
r IF Daniel Drew, or the first Vande
G bilt, or Fisk, or Gould could come bac
into the street today no one of the
n would venture far in the market unit
Is he had first familiarized himself wit
q the new conditions. Things that locke
r mighty to them would not appear I
's big, and manipulative shrewdness tn:
It stamped them as leaders and put tho
9. among. tho successful Wall street me
y Of their time, would be found today
d be the common possession Of many
clerk or broker in the, street.