Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-29

As today liz Good Friday no session OF
the Washington stock exchange held.
The daily meetings will be resumed tomor-
row.
On the supposition the general stock
market has reached the bottom IN prices In
the late decline. and. of course. that is a
mere superstition. those Interested in the
course of the figures for local securities ex-
press themselves as being gratified with
the exhibition OF strength in this market
The list throughout indicates but slight
change. The most active stocks, namely
the preferred and the common of the
Washington Railway and Electric Company
have declined from five to six points at the
lowest, compared with the record at the
beginning OF the year. Owing to the large
blocks of those securities that have been
placed on this market during the past
year or SO the general idea about them was
that they We're very largely in speculative
hands and therefore rather weakly held.
IL was thought that under such a strain
as the general market has recently been
ana winch. OF course. had a wide
spread effect on all markets, that the weak
holders would be obliged to let go, and that
a good deal would be forced out for sale.
This latter condition has not prevailed, as,
in fact. comparatively small amounts of the
stock has come out. The conclusion is
reached by close observers that the theory
or the nature of the holdings of these Sc
curities Is incorrect. 1t is believed II SELL
Ing had been at all general the recessions
in the figures would have been much more
marked than has been the case.
With Capital Traction stock, which Is
also one OF the active traders, although the
amount OF what might be termed floating
stock Is not as large 1t is with the other
railway system. the decline has been rather
slight.
Gas stock, which comes also in the same
class in the daily trading on the exchange.
has shown but little fuctuation, perhaps
not more than a point, and as in the case
of (ADital Traction stock wbtla ha Tod
amount that is available for speculative
purposes no doubt had an effect, still there
is another consideration, and that Is the
belief entertained on the street that dis
tribution of a part OF the surplus of the
company is contemplated before the date
of the report to Congress, which is due at
the next session of that body and which
will be the first report that has been re-
quired from that company by the national
Legislature.
Something Of the same sort is expected
from the Capital Traction Company, as IL is
supposed that by the middle of the year
the issue of per cent bonds will be made,
which will be offered to stockholders at
par.
Other securities on the active list such
as the typesetting machine stocks, are reg
ulated as In the case of the Mergenthaler,
largely by the course in other markets
where 1t Is listed. But neither with the
Mergenthaler nor with the Lanston stock
has there been any considerable shifting In
the figures.
The copper mining stocks are also sub
1ected more or less to outside influences, but
they have not been conspicuous in recent
days, and while the prices are off somewhat,
yet the recessions are not OF radical char
acter.
The rest of the list, which does not in
clude any very active traders, gives but lit
tie indication of the so-called stock market
panic. The period since the middle Of the
month, when the bottom seemed about to
fall out of the general market. has been
marked by small volume Of business. with
the result that the quotations have remained
practically stationary.
Today's Government Receipts.
National bank notes received today for
redemption. s762, $50. Government receipts.
from internal revenue. s9i1. 4S2: customs,
81 2O4, AL; miscellaneous, Sill, 200; expendi-
lures, 81 .OIJ.OOO.