Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-10
Financial News Letter,
BY w. c. Nicholas.
NEW YORK, N. Y, March .. ~

NEW YORK. N. Y. March .. 1877.
This has been the most strenuous week
in Wall street since the week. in last Au-
gust when the explosion Of the news of
the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific div
idends set the market afire. On Wednes-
day afternoon. when the newsboys were
rushing into the street crying Extra, Big
panic in Wall streef.sI the financial barom-
eter had changed SO suddenly that there
was almost bear panic on the exchange,
the upbidding of Reading by frightened
:shorts'' SO a share in few minutes
reversing the whole trend of the market.
We have had enormous liquidation, and
the atmosphere is clearer than it has been
in long time. Some heavy losses have
been taken by powerful interests. The
speculator who began a bear campaign
with the announcement Of the Hartman
Pacific dividends in August last--on the
theory that the big news in the market
was out-has not had much to worry
about since. Some of the August prices
were: Atchison. los; Baltimore and Ohio,
1872; Brooklyn Rapid Transit, 81 ST. Paul.
1873; Delaware and Hudson, 226; Great
Northern, 1874; Illinois Central, 17S: Louis
vile and Nashville, 1874; Missouri Pacific,
100; New York Central, 146; Northern Pa.
cifc, 219; Pennsylvania. 146; Southern
Railway, 80; Union Pacific, 191. The loud
walls last August came not from Amer
lean investors in Union Pacific. but from
the London option dealers. The manner in
which few Of the wise cnes ate UP the
London option dealers last August was
only repetition of six years ago. when
some Of the wise ones loaded up with
calls on Union Pacific at plain $50 and
thereabouts and saw the stock rise in the
next six months to $3.50. The English
have always been bad losers.
X
Tbo Ctop1 has
out of its way to help out the English
Spectators. One reason for this is that
the Standard Oil crowd commands enough
capital in this country without depending
in any way on the English. Mr.. Morgan
has pursued a different policy. He keeps
his English friends in pretty close touch
with the speculative news from the corner.
Mr.. Morgan and Mr.. Hill depend on Lon
don to large extent for financial backing
in times of stress. Mr.. Hills backing there
is probably larger than that of any Amerl-
can f1nancier's. London often gets advance
news about the Morgan plans in our mar
ket, and the Morgan crowd seems to go
out of its way to help make money for the
English SPECTATORS Mr.. Morgan sold an
enormous amount of steel securities in
England, with the expectation that he was
going to make money for his English
friends. The setback in the steel industry
that brought on slump in the shares Sc
verely hurt the Morgan credit on the other
Slue morgan 3 cHOrlS even since then
have been devoted to reconstructing his
credit in England.
The slump in the steel shares did not hurt
Mr.. Morgan abroad as much as the Inter-
national Mercantile Marine fiasco. The
English investors lost millions of dollars
in the steel shares. They did not lose much
money in the shipping trust in fact thew
acquired some good American dollars The
thing that amazed the Englishmen in this
affair and that weakened their confidence
in the Morgan name was the extravagant
prices that Mr.. Morgan seemed willing to
pay for the English ships. They concluded
that if Mr.. Morgan was as careless in can
italizing the shipping trust as that he must
have been little careless in merging the
steel plants In the steel trust.
X
A piece Of gossip floats in from London
which throws sidelight on some of the re-
cent developments in our stock market
According to this story one of the leading
and most influential directors in the Bank
Of England, Lord Revelstoke, formed an
alliance few months ago with members
of , the STANDARD on party in New York,
Standard OIL banks. 1t was not a contract
in writing. 1t was one Of those gentle
mems agreements" In course of time
LOTO heNelStOke discovered tnat MS Amer
lean associates were betraying faith and
unloading stuff on him. He was slow in
reprisal, but when 1t came 1t was in the
shape of an advance in the Bank Of Eng
land rate to 8 per cent, which was the
beginning of the tremendous liquidation in
this market by Standard Oil interests One
incident of the subsequent record was the
emergency borrowing of SO, 000, 900 by H.
H. Rogers at an extravagant rate Of in
terest.
This anti-Harriman spasm is very much
like the anti-Morgan spasm of four years