The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-15

til between i and / o'clock. when the
bears conferred their efforts on Union Pa
ciflC. Reading and Amalgamated Copper.
The whole list was affected by the rapid
falling off in these shares. and the scene
on the stock exchange became one of wild
confusion. There seemed to be absolutely
no support to the market, and the trad
ing became demOralized.
Worst Was Yet to ONE.
This downward movement seemed TO
spend its force in short time. however.
only TO be succeeded toward 1:31 o'clock
by the widest trading that has been
known on the exchange since the North
ern Pacific panic of 1901. Reading fell
/ low as 96ls. while Union Pacific went to
I l3l St. Paul to 100 and Amalga mated Cop
/ per TO 81. At this time the traders thought
/ they had seen the worst of the day, but
stiil more sensational declines. with the
most excited trading scenes, came Just
before the close OF the market Brokers
who had called on their customers and
who had not received satisfactory re-
spoBses, threw over thefr stocks almost
without regard for the prices they would
BRING and ii was in this slump that the
extreme low prices were reached. Amalga-
mated Copper selling at 50. Atchison at
Sss Baltimore & Ohio at s. Canadian Pa
eific al l6l. St. Paul at 125 Pennsylvania
al III, Reading at 81 Southern Pacific a;
COS. and Union Pacific at I20L. After the
most urgent selling had been accomplish
ed there were sharp rallies in a number
of the shares most of the leaders closing
from one to three points above the low
est.
Rumors Readily Believed.
Wall street was SO excited during the
worst period of the afternoon that almost
any rumOr received some belief. one re-
port that had considerable effect on the
market. and on Union Pacific particular
~, was that a serious break had occurred
IN the friendly relations between E II.
Hartman and the banking firm of Kuhn.
Loeb & co. According to this report, Mr..
HarrirSHu had been requested by the
banking firm to take up large amount OF
securities which they were carrying for
him. The story was almost instantly de-
MED. but Notwithstanding the denial con-
tInGed to have effect. Another reason put
forth for the heavy break i'm Union Pa
cific and Reading. accompanied by the
sharp falling off in Baltimore & Ohio was
said to be that the Union Pacific was
having difficulties in financing its pur-
chases of Baltimore & Ohio, Atchison and
other stocks. In order to finance these
operau it was asserted. the road
would be obliged to issue short-time notes
and the issuing of these notes would be
affected by the fact that the recent de-
clines in Baltimore * Ohio and Atchison
show losses of many millions of dollars
from the prices at which they were pur-
chased by the Hartman interests. Ii was
pointed out. also. that the decline in
Reading shows a heavy loss to Baltimore
& Ohio. which holds about $50 900 900 of the
No Failures Reported.
After the close of the market much re-
lief was expressed that there had been
no failures during the DAY and that of all
the rumOTs in the street there seemed
TO be none affecting the solvency of any
banking or brokerage house of any impor-
lance. The banks reported that their de-
mands for further collateral from brokers
had met with prompt response and that
so far as they were concerned. their DO
sition as to the stock market was salts
factory.
A remarkable feature of the present de-
cline in Wall street values is that il was
fOreseen several months ago and that
warning was given, so that brokers gener-
ally had protected themselves by requir-
ing their customers to deposit and main
tain ample margins on their trades. In
this respect the present situat ton differs
widely from that of 1901. when the con-
test over the Northern Pacific brought
about a panic at a time when bull sDecu-
latioB was rampant and when the public
was carrying heavy lines of stock on
comparatively slender margins At tina,
through failure of their customers to re-
spOnd to calls for funds So far as Is
known no such state of affairs exists to-
day. Some of the larger commission
houses have reported for the last several
weeks that their customers were out OF
the market entirely
Continued on Page 2.