The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-25
SECRETARY SHAW
CALLS THE TURN
Wouldn't Be Made a Fool of
BY Wall Street
CHANGE IN MONEY MART
Standard Oil Trying to Work Up In
terest In Its stoek-BuIls and
Bears Keep In Touch With
Washington.
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

Two weeks ago we had 20 per cent. call
money In Wall street, and the wise, con-
| sentative bankers were telling us that
we never could have a bull market go
Ing on with such tight money. But, said
United States treasury, and Secretary
| Shaw can very easily relieve the finan-
| cial stringency over the end of the year
| by releasing some of the treasury horde
and SO establishing a basis for a large
amount of new credit. Secretary Shaw
came over from Washington, talked with
some of the banking people. went back
| to Washington, and them when all Wall
| street was waiting to hear of the imme-
date release of government FUNDS, Sec
rotary Shaw came out flat-footed and
said that money was really only tight in
| Wall street, and there was not great
| demand for financial relief throughout
tho country. The secretary announced
very firmly that he refused to take any
! further measures to relieve the Wall
street stringency unless tho situation be-
came very much worse. The secretarys
remarks in private to his callers were
put In much stronger language. He was
not going to be made a fool of by Wall
street, and the following business day
call money In Wall street suddenly
| dropped from 20 per cent. to a normal
| figure.
| The bankers who had shook their heads
and talked about the foolhardness Of
buning stocks without treasury relief
| Immediately went into the market and
| began to buy up standard railway stocks.
| Since then st. Paul has had a violent
| rise, and other leading stocks, like I'm
| ion Pacific, Southern Pacific, Louisville
| and Nashville, Delaware and Hudson,
Northern Pacific and New York Central,
have scored considerable advances. The
| speculative community has again been
filled up with bullish stories about the
general prosperity of the country, in
creases in railway dividends and pur-
ehases and mergers of railway proper
| ties, until 1t would seem that the whole
| list of stocks which have advanced so
| enormously in the past two years ere
again on the bargain table.
What does it all mean? The most pow
erful party in stock speculation is that
| known as the Standard Oil party. Chief
among it's members are William r.
Rockefeller II. II. Rogers, Henry C.
Prick, e. II. Hartman and James Still
| man. These gentlemen and their fol-
lowers have added enormously to their
fortunes in the past eight years AS one
of their number says 1.-The American
who has not made a fortune in the past
ten years has only himself to blame"
These men have been behind the adj
vance In stocks that has followed the
announcement by Secretary Shaw that
he would not come to the relief of the
money market. They took ST. Paul as
their leader because of their ability to
absolutely control In the market the
fluctuations in this railroad stock. The
floating supply of ST. Paul in Wall street
Is very small, and at times the purchase
of few thousand shares of it in the
open market is sufficient to advance its
price several points, where the pur-
chase of five times as much of a stool,
so widely distributed as United States
Steel Common would not advance it a
point. Discovering 81 large short interest
IN st. Paul the Standard Oil party
joined hands and proceeded to mark the
price up merrily at the expense of the
bears The bears rushed in to cover,
and helped along the advance. After the
advance had gone five or six points. the
rank and file Of Wall street began to
get bullsh on 1t on the strength of ru-
mors widely circulated of the purchase
of the st. Paul by the Southern Pacific
and other wonderful things, more oy
less improbable. In the vernacular OF
Wall street, it is the ticker that talks
When a stock is going down everybody
|
up everybody becomes correspondence
bulllsh. st, Paul advanced mysteriously
point by point, increasing at each stage
of its advance a number of believers III
the merit of It's advance. Meanwhile
other stocks in which the Standard Oil
party has dominant interest were TAX
en- up and advanced. While it was ad-
vancing Union Pacific it distributed st.
Paul. and then while it was advancing
Amalgamated Copper it was distributing
Union Pacific.
In the meantime the leaders of pools
in other stocks took courage and marked
up their wares. High-prced stocks like
Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Lack
awanna and Delaware and Hudson In
which the general public does very little
trading are easily marked up. They
have been used time and time again 10
stimulate public interest in the market
because while they are advancing al
though the public does not buy them, Il
nibbles at lower priced stocks. The ad,
vance of the past fortnight has been
strictly a Wall street affair, participated
In only by that portion of the public
which trades habitually in the street for
two or three point profits From sur
face indications 1t would seem that til.
big men who have been marking ur
stocks have had some success in distrih-
uting a part of their holdings in Wall
street but the real public--the public
that went wild over Steel Common and
Amalgamated Copper and other new
stocks in the last speculative boom--is
buying very sparingly.
The Standard Oil party and the other
speculative pools are evidently trying %
make stocks look more attractive by
quoting them at higher prices 1t is on
of the curiosities of human nature tina;
people would rather buy things ut higher
than at low prices. When stocks were
really on the bargain table in the spring
of 1904 nobody wanted them. Now that
they have advanced so to 100 per cent.
and more. they look very attractive. bur
the public Is not in the market II (.
was, we would have 4,0DO,O00 share DAYS
now instead of 1.000.000 share days Five
years ago, when MANY standard stocks
We're really selling higher than they are
now. taking INTO consideration their in
| trlnsic value. we had plenty of 1000 900
share days. and one day the trading was
| away above the 100000 mark. Since then
the country has increased enormously In
| wealth: private fortunes have grown at
n rate so rapid that publicists like Mr..
Roosevelt want to have them limited by
! law. and If speculation had been keep
| ing pace with the growth of the countrv.
| then we should have 5000 900 and 1000
| coo share days occasionally and 2.000,A0
| share days very often. but the public
speculative fever received a severe shock
four years ago. and the public is still
nursing its bruises. despite the enormous
wealth and growth of the country.
Keeping Tab on Washington.
| Wall street tries TO keep its ears closed