Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16
Wall Streets Public
The Present Not Professional Marke-the Public In
vesting Today as Never Before
BY EDWIN LEFEyRE.
Copyright. 1905. by Mcclure, Phillips Coz

SneciaI Correspondence of The Sunday star
Tho remark that one hears several times
q. minute In Wall street these days IS lhat'
..there is no public in the market II Is
hoard I'm the highest financial circles, in the
hanks IN commission house offices, on the
floor of the Stock Exchange, In the New
street saloons in the uptown cafes, wher-
ever the ticker Is watched. 1t is, to be
sure a half truth but then everything IN
this world is relative and the watchers OF
the tape doubtless have In mind the Wild
boom days of exactly four years ago. AT
all events. the interesting point of the re-
mark is in the application of it. Usually
professional Wall street decides That the
public is not in the market after repeated
ATTEMPTS at the wholesale distribution or
securities have been made and do not sue
coed The ultimate owner of stocks is the
public. The ownership may be permanent
or temporary; that Is, the owner may De
an investor or q speculator, but securities
are made TO sell, and there is no one buyer
so great as the hundred thousand buyers
that constitute Wall streets public. IL
the public. therefore, refuses TO buy after
the manipulation Incidental to the campaign
of distribution has proceeded beyond a GER
tain stage, the inference is either that the
state of outside sentiment Is not cheer1ul
or that stocks are too high to be tempting
even to an ignorant and forgetful public
At the moment basic conditions are good
There Is no widespread distrust, no uncer-
tainty to the outlook. The disnclina-
tfon of the public TO buy is therefore at
tributed to the high prevailing prices of
securities. The Wall street professional has
always considered II the wise thing in such
contingencies TO allow prices to decline I'M
til an "invitngly low" level is reached, for
the man who would not buy, let us say,
Pennsylvania at 40 might buy it at 100,
and certainly ought 10 buy 1t at 100 There
fore, when the professional tells you that
he nVrhl lie In m
often gauge the extent of his bearishness or
of his commitments on the short side by
the degree of dolefulness in his voice. even
though the same man in the next breath
tells you that the big men" have been I'M
loading as usual before a slump in prices
the same public which is not In the market
being thereby accused by implication, of
having transferred the rich mans burden
of stocks to its own shoulders.
Foreign Investments.
Prominent bankers. members of firms
whose most profitable business is the ere
alton or the sale of securities new and old
for those corporations whose financial ad-
visers and hackers they are, say the same
thing today almost emphatically as any
blear-eyed bear discoursing to his fellows
in a New street cafe. They venture the
opinion that the only active bull speculators
at the moment are few cliques of very
wealthy semi-professional operators. The
success of the latest Japanese loan brought
out in this country by Kuhn, Loeb &
Co. subscriptions for which amounted to
half a billion of dollars, would indicate a
very fair demand from investors. Allowing
for intentional oversubscriptions on the part
of institutions and men of large means who
knew their allotments would be only frac-
ton of what they profeSsed willingness to
take the fact remains that the small in
weston was very much in evidence. The
publics investments in bonds of foreign
governments and of domestic railway and
Industrial companies during the past six or