The San Francisco call., 1906-08-19
WILD SPECULATION
ON WALL STREET.
Brokers Receive Orders
From All Sections to
Buy Railroad Stocks
EXPECT BIG BOOM

NEW YORK. Aug 1s.-Never In the
history of Wall street has there been
two hours of such vehement specula-
tion as that which NAKED the session
lasting from 10 o'clock to noon today.
In 120 minutes 1.s33,3oO shares of
stock were sold. millions Of dollars in
profits were cleared and brokers gath
cred enormous sums in commissions.
Buying orders from all over the
United States reached Wall street in
such flood that not half OF them could
be executed. A renewal OF the boom is
looked for when the market opens
Monday.
The boom extended through, the list
of active stocks. Union Pacific. which
closed on Friday at 17S1a, closed today
at 1S4A, a net advance of 5 q points on
the day and Of FIX points since Fri
days opening. Southern Pacific closed
at 90%. a net advance for the day of
3A points. The following official
statement was issued from the Office OF
the Union Pacific:
The board OF directors OF the Union
Pacific and of the Southern Pacific met
Wednesday and authorized action on
the dividend by the executive commit
tees. The committees, however, did
not meet until Thursday afternoon at
8 o'clock and formal notice of the divi-
dend was delivered to the secretary of
the Stock Exchange before 10 a. m.
Friday"
DELAY IN POSTING NOTICES.
Joseph tMallon. assistant secretary of
the company, added to this explanation
that the announcement OF the dividend
was not made Thursday night because
that would allow the London Stock Ex-
change to take advantage of the news
Friday morning before the local mar
ket had opened.
George w. Ely. secretary OF the
Stock Exchange. when asked about the
delay in posting the dividend notices,
said:
IT received these dividend notices
about ten minutes before the opening
of the market. On account of their ex-
traordinary nature did not post them
on the floor of the exchange until had
verified them from the secretaries OF
these companies"
Organized. speculation shifted during
the day to Pennsylvania, Reading and
Amalgamated Copper There were
huge transactions in United States
Steel. These stocks showed large pro-
portion in the total sales Of the day.
which ran at rate of activity equal
to the boom days OF April. 1901.
The operations by the room. element
were on practically unlimited scale
and their trading in and out inflated
the volume of dealings. Their quick
proft- taking kept prices fuctuating
constantly. But the buying demand
was kept reinforced and the uplift of
prices continued. The. active demand
was undiminished at the closing and
while prices at some points showed the
effect of proft taking at that time
there were buoyant advances at others.
Total sales Of bonds, par value. ST.
$4,000.
RECORD OF THE WEEK.
Speculative interest was kept alive
during the week by the enormous ope-
rations on a rising scale in the Harri-
man Pacifcs. The general market was
little responsive until the official an
nouncement on Friday of the dividend
action on the two stocks when the
whole market was thrown into a par
oxysm of excitement. The boldest pro-
phets had failed to foreshadow the
placing of Union Pacific on 10 per
cent basis. The previous conjectures
were generally agreed in expecting a
8 Il per cent disbursement. with vary
ing opinions as to whether this divi-
dend should be designated as regular or
as per cent regular and u per cent
extra. The sensation was. in proper
ton when a semi i-annual dividend of
per cent on Union Pacific and of 2 y
per cent on Southern Pacific. was an
nounced.