The Washington herald., 1907-01-19

New York, Jan IS-Graater declines IL
prices occurred to-day in the stock mar
ket than on any previous day in the
week or in the year and the intensity OF
the fan was only equaled on a few occa-
sions in the closing menths Of last year
Indeed, several stocks fell to lower levels
than they have done at any time for a
year back. Closing prices were almost
without exception al the lowest of the
day, and the Amalgamated Copper shares
sustained a net loss of 37s points Union
Pacific 37s, Southern Pacific is, Atchison
common rs, Reading 4, ST. Paul rs
Northern Pacific 6i2, Great Northern pre-
ferred 81. Pennsylvania ~. United
States Steel common 10, Canadian Pa
cific ,. and 50 on throughout the list,
Transactions were over 100000 shares.
The peculiarly of the market was that
the fan seemed due to no especial cause.
and although 1t was largely accelerated
by the work of spectators for the de
cline, il was undoubtedly characterized by
great amount Of actual liquidation.
which in the last few minutes of the
dealings was conducted without regard
to price and was manifestIy in the ma
LuTe of an enforced selling
Hope for New Steel Dividend.
While there has been no general con-
Viction recently that the next dividend on
Steel common would be advanced. hopes
concerning this have undoubtedly been
prevalent in certain ultrJ-speculative cir
cles. The greatly increased earnings Of the
United States Steel Corporation. Ike
those Of the Amalgamated Copper Com
panE, have been q matter Of common
knowledge, and when such profits accrue
there arc many people in Wall street
whose reflections concerning the matter
always assume The form of anticipations
Of an enlarged dividend distribution.
Jus- as it Is known 70 be the desire
however, of the AmalEamated Copper
managers to build up a large cash sur
plus for their COMPANY. and to act con-
seTvatively in the matter of distributing
their profits. so il is the well-known and.
indeed. formally announced determine
ton OF the directors of the United States
Steel Corporation % apply "a large por-
tlJn of their earnings for the construction
Of additional steel producing plants rather
than 20 borrow money for this purpose.
L would be surprising if. before the great
new plant of the United States Steel Cor
p1ra,ion at Gary, Ind, is wholly erected.
bonds of the corporation should not be
issued to provide funds i'm building it: bat
10 certain extent the work there viii ad-
mittedIy be paid Tor out of cash surplus
From every conservative point of view.
this policy is wise and salutary and such
unQuesuonabIy VIII be the permanent con-
c3usiOn that Wall street viii arrive at re-
garding it,
An underlying reason for the weakness
of the market recently, so FAR as can be
assigned. is, perhaps. ppointment by
spectators for the rise, and others over
the failure of the market TO exhibit any
pronounced resiiency upon the ease that
has come about in the money situation.
and IN ,he prospect for the prevalence Of
relatively low rates for the use of money
for considerable time to come. This
disappointment seems to be felt not only
in our own. but in the London market
Money is really becoming easier than op-
timistic observers "a few weeks ago imag-
inod that il would. The Bank of England
is with difficulty maintaining its discount
rate ut the figure Of per cent, % which
10 has Just been lowered while here cash
is 50 pil.ng up in the banks-estimates of
the money gain by the banks during the
week running over AG1000-as TO result
to-day in the lowest rate for call money
for six months, and in further notable
reduction in time-money rates. Plenty of
money was obtained to-day for nearly all
the long periods on fair collateral at 5Ia
per cent
Money Rates Below Normal.
The meaning of all this is that investors
who have been nattering themselves that
they could readily put out their money at
s per cent interest, find that it is no
longer possible to do so; and it would be
very surprising if the fact does not in
due time begin TO exert its normal and
legitimate influence upon Wall street
values. Some signs Of this influence are
already evident in the bond market
However brought about. there was no
question rs 10 what really happened i'm
to-day's stock market There was an
enormous unloading Of stocks held bv
ciques ana large and small spectators
for the rise, aud under this the market
was in its last quarter Of an hour almost
oemoralized. The selling was accom-
panied, rs it invariably is on such occa-
si0ns, by trouble stories" regarding var
ious firms and individuals. and while it is
obvious that large speculative losses have
been incurred during recent months. il is
yet believed by the best Of observers that
such tales as were current to-day were
grossly and malici0usly exaggerated Tt
is also obvious TO every ciear-headed per
son that sucn liquidation as has occurred
In the security market even during the
present week, must soon operate 70 bring
the general speculative and financial
status to pretty firm foundation