The San Francisco call., 1906-05-03
RAID
ON STOCK
EXCHANGE
Enormous Volume OF
Liquidation in Wall
Street.
More Than Two Million
Shares OF Stock Change
Hands.

NEW YORK, May Am enormous
volume Of liquidation was effected in
the stock market today. The aggre-
gate of shares sold, while far below the
record of dealings at the New York
Stock Exchange, rose well over 1000. 900
shares and made the day one of the
great ones in New York Stock Ex-
change history. Very serious inroads
upon prices were caused By the vio-
lence of the liquidation; but, toward
the end of the day. the market showed
evidence of the relief afforded by TIE
liquidation accomplished.
It was field day for the bears and
they operated with great boldness and
on an enormous scale all day. Their
inclination to take profits on the large
declines OF the day was an important
factor in the occasional rallies and in
the. later tendency toward improvement
In the market The heavy shrinkage
In market valuations gave rise TO the
inevitable reports of money diffiulties
and added to the uneasiness prevail
ing about the Stock Exchange. There
was no confirmation of these reports
and their failure Of verifcation helped
the rebound.
The extreme weakness shown dur
Grafton OF the same causes which have
been of effect for several weeks. 1t is
generally accepted as fact that very
wealthy speculative operators and
powerful pools that had persisted IN
disregarding the warning of the money
market and in attempting t. hold the
! market by main force were being
-orced from their position and obliged
20 sell out their huge holdings to OBJ
tain funds in hand for the reimburse
ment of banking centers which had ad-
vanced money for use in the specula-
tive campaign. The manner. in which
stocks were hurled into the market AMI
also the individual blocks traded in
gave strong impression of the di-
mensions of the speculative interests
which were being forced to sell.
Another days large clearances be-
tween the banks reflected further large
financial operations In progress. The
outgo Of currency to San Francisco, al
though abated. has not ceased, and
the incoming gold is not sufficient to
relieve entirely the effect of the San
Francisco requirements.
Intimations OF a forthcoming special
Presidential message to accompany the
report OF the Standard On inquiry were
made something Of Decreases IN
March net earnings by the Southern
Railway. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chica-
go and st. Louis and the Denver and
Rio Grande companies made a
disagreeable supplement to yes
terday's similar showings by
st. Paul and Louisville and
Nashville, Notwithstanding the
largely increased earnings reported by
the Pennsylvania and the Norfolk and
Western. Further large declines In the
foreign exchange rate indicated con-
tinued call for outside gold. but dis
counts hardened, the private rate In
London rising to a level with the off,
cial rate of the Bank of England.
In connection with the Improvement
In prices the latter part of the day it
was reported that foreign banking in
terests had taken over some heavy
blocks of securities. either as collateral
for advances or for outright purchase
The substantial recovery left no ade-
quate indication of the days net price
changes or of the extreme demoraliza-
ton that ruled in the market about the
middle OF the session.