The Minneapolis journal., 1906-12-23
ST. PAUL STOCK
WALL ST. FEATURE
Hill and Hartman Stocks with
Reading Were Active
Leaders. ..

New York, Dec. 22-Generally
speaking, st. Paul is again the star
performer of the Stock Exchange circus
ring. For few years past, St. Paul
has not been quite as prominent as it
used to be four or five years ago, when
day after day it was looked. upon to
furnish the cue for the remainder of
the market. Other stocks like Union
Pacific, Northern Pacific, Steel, Read
ing and Baltimore & Ohio displaced it
from time to time in the popular favor,
but. now it has regained it's place as
leader; but for how long no one knows
led the market downward with drop
OF many points and a cleaning out of
lightly margined spectators. The de-
cine took many persons, including
some brokers, greatly by surprise, yet
they had a premonition that something
unusual would happen in the old favor
ite.
The plan of the st. Paul road to issue
$l00000,O00 of new stock, and the pc
euliar terms under which it is to be
brought out were said to be the cause
of the bad break. The result was
scramble of all the spectators who
had bought the stock to get out the mo-
ment they saw it give way, and it was
an avalanche of st. Paul on declin-
ing sea ale that dragged everything else
down, including the Hill stocks Five
point margins went by the board in
also Disappeared The excitement in
st. Paul stock was tremendous and the
like of it has not been witnessed for
many days.
The feature for issuing $1O0,0OO,O0O
Of neW stock which aroused most crit
1clsm was that the privilege of taking
new stock was given only to stock
holders of record at the close of bust.
ness on Wednesday. Fault was also
found with the requirement Of first
payment Of 10 per cent, aggrcgating
$1O,00O,00o, on Dec. 81. Some dis
ing by mailing lemons to the st. Paul
post on the floor of the exchange. st.
Paul had been very good to them for
many moons, but now they had no fur
ther use for it. Great Northern and
Northern Pacific, both Of which have
had announcements of new stock issues
during the past week, were also
dropped like hot cakes, but strong in
terests gobbled them up at bargain
prices.
Notwit hstanding this st. Paul furry,
are not lacking. The elements of dan
ger that are being pushed forward in
Wall street just, now are, really evil
dences of strength. An attempt was
made during the week to frighten the
market with a report from Washington
that, the government may find it neces-
sary to take charge of the railroads
and operate the freight trains so as to
favor transportation of food products.
This would be official proof of the
tremendous business done by the rail-
roads. If every line in the United
States We're doubled the traffic would
keep all busy.
The fact that st. Paul stock is close
ly held and might easily be cOrnered
and possibly raised to $1,000 share,
naturally causes uneasiness, but it is
not thought that the Standard Oil clique
would care to manipulate corner at
this particular time, with congress in
session and public sentiment being
aroused against such maneuvers. Stand
ard Oil don It need the money and can,
therefore, afford to let the opportun-
lty slip by. but at the same time it is
doing more or less in the way of man
ipulating the market, and the charge has
been made that it has caused big de-
cline in st. Paul, and wiped out lot
OF people. Many traders believe that
the movement in st. Paul is the result
or the operations OF a gigantic pool
1t is said that the buying of the Nor
gan interests in Great Northern and
Northern Pacific has been for the sole
purpose of protecting those stocks.
The old report is revived that the
st. Paul road will turn up in the con-
troll OF the Union Pacific interests, who
will use 1T to compete with the
Northern Pacific. Northern Pacific in
terests, however, are not worrying over
st. Paul competition, stating that there