Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24

different spirit. -Four years ago q loud
losses in stocks. But this time. judging
from opinions that are expressed in the
newspapers throughout the country, the
bottom has again fallen out of Wall street.
This time the public let the big men go
ahead and play their own game and then
eat each other up in the end.
-
Mr.. Hartman is the big figure in the
| market. The future of his companies is of
absorbing interest. When the Northern
Securities Company was broken up the
Union Pacific treasury was left with $685.
the bear market of 1903 the Union Pacifc's
holdings of Northern Securities stocks de-
clined to market value Of $6S. 100000. In
the big rise in the fall Of 1895 these same
holdings reached q market value OF $685.
600, GEO. a gain Of $9O.0G0.0O0. 1t was this
great rise that gave impetus to the Standard
OIL bull campaign in Union Pacific that took
the stock from so to above $780, When
the Northern Securities Company was dis
solved and the courts decided against the
HARTMAN party and in favor of the Hill
party on the pro rata plan of distribution,
by which the Union Pacific. Mr.. Harri-
man recently acknowledged, got lot of
Hill stocks that 1t did not want 1t was
plain that the Union Pacific people would
get out of these Hill stocks as soon as they
could.
One Of the purposes Of the bull campaign
following the dissolution of the Northern
Securities Company was the liquidation Of
the $50. 200. eco worth of Hill stocks in the
Union Pacific treasury. The great problem
IN the Hill camp was how to support the
market for Northern Pacific and Great
Northern at their-very high prices while
Mr.. Hartman was unloading these stocks
out of the Union Pacific treasury. The Hill
plan Of distribution gave the Union Pacific
100000 shares of Northern Pacific and 2.O,-
600 shares of Great Northern. The Union
Pacific, however, did not exercise its priv
ilege to exchange all Of it's Northern Secu-
rites stock into the Hill stocks The
the curb enabled the Union Pacific
to sell great deal of this stock direct
without exchanging it for Great Northern
and Northern Pacific At the top prices for
the Hill stocks last year the Union Pacific
holdings extreme market value was:
: shares S,est s,se
sles. 600 geo
At the low prices of the recent slump
their market value was:
go coo shares Great Northern at s1s2 sss 900 900
$4,000 shsres Sorissrn facifc. at ais S 900 90
Northern Pacific rights on new stock. 5000, 900
$s1 600 900
The Union Pacihc's holdings in last
weeks panic, therefore, showed an ex-
All the time that the rich followers Of
Mr.. Hill were putting orders into the mar
ket to buy Great Northern and Northern
Pacific Mr.. Hartman was putting In orders
at Kuhn. Loeb & Co.'S to sell them. Mr..
Hartman never supplied too much stock in
one day. man who wanted to buy
few thousand shares of Great Northern
when it was above $500 share was some
times forced to bid up S. or SO share to
get the stock. The man who was feeding
out stock to the market all the time had
won his spurs on the floor of the stock ex.
change.
A bungler would have swamped the mar
ket with these high-priced stocks. But Mr..
Hartman knew better than this. Mr.. Haf-
rfman's bankers made report to him every
night of the amount of stock they had sold
They were amazed at the manner in which
the Hill following paid high prices for the
Great Northern and Northern Pacific II
the Hill followers had paid for their stock
and put 1t away. things might have gone
along very we'll But the trouble was that
a great many of them, eager to build up
their fortunes. bought these stocks on as
narrow q margin as brokers Would allow
them to put up. They bought them on mar
gin, and when they rose bought more on
their paper profits Conservative old hold
cifc who had bought these stocks all the
way up from few dollars a share bor-
rowed money on them at the high prices and
bought more. When money began to get
scarce last year and the great banks of the
world began to preach caution. the Hill
following discovered that they had stocks
returning little more than per cent in a
per cent money market. They were in a
vulnerable position. They could not liqui-
date at the high prices because the buying
power in these stocks had been exhausted
for the time being. Plain ordinary invest
ors would not touch them at the high prices.
When the world liquida ton began this win
ter the efforts of the Hill people to scale
down their holdings brought on collapse in
the Hill stocks: Mr.. Hartman sat back
his old-time rival trying to beat each other
to the. market without being seen. 1t is
tradition in the Hill camp that 1t is dis
loyal to sell any Of the stocks. and so the
Hill followers who wanted to convert some
of their paper profits into real money had
to do some tall sidestepping to get out of
their stocks without letting Mr.. Hill know
it.
One of the Englishmen most hurt in the
collapse of the Hill stocks is understood to
be leading member of the royal family
The story Is told that year ago. when
Northern Pacific was selling around $40
| before it rose to its high price of 1922 one
of Mr.. Hills richest friends in England
presumably Lord Strathcona-was asked by
a friend of his in the royal family for ad-
vice on American railway investments Lord
Stfathcona's friend had 91.OO0Oo0 to in
vest. Lord Strathcona, SO the story goes,
wrote to Mr.. Hill and Mr.. Hills advice was
that Northern Pacific was one of the most
attractive investments in the American mar,
ket. The 91,00OOO0 was accordingly invest
ed in Northern Pacific. The story does not
relate whether this stock has since been
liquidated. but the member of the royal
| family is said to have lost good deal more
money than he can afford to lose. AS every
body who is in the know knows, even mem
bers of the English royal family frequently
have trouble in keeping their expenses in
side their incomes. The recent sovereign,
when he was Prince of Wales, ran heavily
l into debt. and one of his big creditors WI q