Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-05

enthusiastically enough about their prop
erty to friends and acquaintances. But
there - nothing tangible. nothing that can
compel belief and this without any desire to
cast the slightest slur on the trustworthiness
Of their spoken word The fact that, cor
poration II prosperous does not necessarily
no reason to complain. All the big insur-
ance companies showed great prosperity.
However. to expect perfect frankness from
insiders 10 Utopian. Intelligent publicity,
and enough of 1t, will do all that any rea-
sonable being can expect-when We get II.
The public just now is asking for IT, a tribe
Historically. It must keep on asking for 1t
calmly, also necessarily.
To Wall street the interesting point about
manipulation is the motive and reasons for
1t. 1t regards the ethical side as of aca-
demic interest. In nine out of ten cases
manipulation for rise is prompted by the
desire to market stock. Here is a security
which has been quoted say at about $50
share, and without any Overwhelming de-
mand from a would-get-rich public. An
operator a pool has or acquires a large
block. and proceeds to jack up the price.
Everybody asks: Why is the stock going
up? Answers are forthcoming. The COM
pany Is doing much better than the street
suspects. Or maybe 1t Is deal with some
other corporation. or any one OF a thousand
'explanations'-for IL the moving spirits OF
lHt doEduce OOn answer the Questions, the
newspapers or the watchers of the ticker
Will. Very often such advances are Justified
by underlying conditions, equally often they
are not. The professional assumes that the
main object Of the manipulators Is to make
money, which indeed 1t Is. But because too
frequently the object Is achieved, let US
say. unworthily. the Wall street mob looks
askance at rises accompanied by overmuch
talk of remarkable prosperity so long I'M
suspected by students of values.
There Is precisely where the street, like
the public. makes a mistake. The big Wall
street men are not philant hropists, but they
are not all crooks. Nothing more common
the evidences OF this countrys remarkable
resources. The way earnings grow almost
passes belief company that barely
earned the interest on It's bonded indebted
ness one year becomes such money-maker
In few years as to make its formerly
worthless shares safe investments. not be-
cause the stock has been manipulated by
insiders and pools. but because its business
has grown at an incredible rate Time and
again the insiders. shrewd, experienced
men. born optimsts, thoroughly familiar
With the cOmpany's business. have been
fooled into parting with their stocks ahead
Of time. They have sold at 40 what cost
them 10, and congratulated themselves only
to see the tide of prosperity rising still
higher until they were wise enough to buy
back at GO what they had sold at 40 because
II had cost them TO- Therefore 1t Is not
safe to bet that insiders cannot be gen.
timely buying their own pet stock at high
prices because they were not enthusiastic
about II at low prices. But their reasons
are not deemed Trustworthy by the pro-
fessionals and their sucker satellites until q
long time has elapsed. The only moral to
be gathered Ia that skepticism is wtse-in
moderation.