Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-08
Financial News Letter
BY W. G. NICHOLAS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

the characteristics of the stock market.
These have been the distinguishing fea
lures for several weeks, and the promise
for q change cannot be called encourage
ing.
The disturbing factor is the attitude of the
political parties toward corporations and
toward speculation 1t is idle to think
otherwise or say otherwise. Nothing bet
ter illustrates and reveals the uncertainty
in mems minds than the stock market at
this moment. Capital is stubbornly hold
ing back and refusing to lend aid to any
kind of enterprise or development until
better foresight of the political and
business future can be had. The two are
so inextricably interviewer that they go
together. There has probably never been
a time when politics and business were
more closely interdependent than now.
This view may be disputed by some. but
the facts are there. A great army OF
investors feel that it is almost like buy
ing into a lawsuit to put their money
into corporation securities. With the fed
eral and state governments and legisla-
lures arrayed in open hostility, and with
the populace apparently infiamed to
encouragement to any and every sort OF
assault on substantial interests.
While dull and almost anemic. the stock
market cannot be described apathetic.
On the contrary, the prevailing senti-
ment is one of intensity of interest. with
background of timidity and fear as to
what may be ahead. At the prevailing
low prices. few people are selling unless
obliged to and with the surrounding and
ever-present uncertainty few people care
to buy or make commitments. The
situation Is in the highest degree unsatis-
factory for everybody.
Not the least disquieting feature is the
discovery which Wall street is making
tat a vast majority of people are taking
the White House view, that the under
lying causes of the business apprehension
and of the panic which preceded 1t were
caused by the transportation in the stock
market and by the misdeeds of high
financiers and those trusted with the
management of great corporate interests.
i lis overwhelming sentiment finds ex-
preston in the campaigns at Washington
and almost every state capital for the sup
preston of gambling in stocks and farm
commodities 1t took Wall street long
time to realize that there was anything
in this movement beyond the mere idle
crusading and demagogic politicians striv
ing to gain the good will of the peanut
galleries. That it means a general move
ment. representing tremendous majority
of the people. is now dawning upon the
rank and file of the financial district. The
revelation is shock as well sur
prise. 1t has shaken the dull provincial
ism of the street from circumference to
center. 1t spells to the awakened Wall
street great popular Endorsement of
thu President and his policies" The
takers and the wiseacres of the street
had deluded themselves into the belief
that the country had very generally &C
cepted the theory that the administration
was chiefly responsible for the panic and
its after effects. whereas the weight of
testimony is coming in directly the other
way at this writing. Whether or not
there will be change remains to be seen.
For the present, however, the street finds
itself up against the proposition that II is |
the under dog j.. the fight. and that it
is in for further process of disciplining. |
To Wall street it seems incredible that
any considerable portion Of the thinking |
population could take any other position |
than that injury to Wall street is injury
to the entire material interests of the
country. and that assaults on capital are
suicidal to labor and every kind of enter |
prfse-suicidal and mQrderous. To the |
utter disgust of the street, knowledge is |
forced upon it, that most people regard |
that especial locality as den of thieves |
that might be entirely eliminated without |
doing the country any harm. The popu-
lation of the street knows differently. |
but that does not make any difference. |
deaf outside ears to all seeming.
Heretofore Wall street has been sneer-
ingly Indifferent to any and all hostile |
legislation looking to regulation of it's
II HAS DttI1 Il law unto Itself, |
even the stock exchange is. Not |
only Indifferent. but callous to outside !
criticism. Throughout a long series of
years the New York Stock Exchange has |
refused to recognize such thing as the |
of legislation which would |
interfere. with it's affairs. 1t is "a nom
association of 1000 men, |
who have their rules for their own |
government. some of them within the |
law and some of them being entirely for |
I,p c,,x 6
those on the inside and regardless of the |
rights of the public. This has been |
notably illustrated in the non-enforcement |
of the requirements calling for reports
of corporations whose stocks are dealt in
on the exchange. There are many |
stocks bought and sold on the New York |
Stock Exchange about which the public |
has no reliable information and which |
could and should be thrown off simply |
because the arrangements scornfully re- |
fuse to make public their financial condi- |
ton as required by law. The exchange |
is in the early stages of rude awaken |
ing on this and many other points about |
which it have been wilfully neglectful
of its duties to the public from whom
patronage is asked and obtained. The |
bill and other measures in Con- |
gress and equally drastic propositions be- |
fore the New York and other state legis |
latures. distasteful they are. must be |
educational to Wall street |
The loud proclamation is made that none
OF these obnoxious measures can be |
passed, but that is merely whistling |
against the wind. The great truth is |
dawning upon the oracles that their mere |
saying so does not make it SO. and the |
street Is in a state of genuine alarm lest |
1t be put out of business or seriously en- |
barrassed. Measures are 49, last being |
taken by the stock exchange to combat |
hostile legislative action. The wise men |
of that body are preparing to descend !
upon the ignorant statesmen at Wash |
in they are weak, deluded victims of
grossly ignorant prejudices. What sue
cess these illuminating efforts will have
is a subject of earnest discussion. One |
trouble with Wall street is that 1t does |
not know anything about what is going |
on or thought or talked of outside of the |
Immediate sphere of New York influence, |
say within radius of twenty-five miles |
from the city hall Anything that will
enlighten or quicken the intelligence of
the denizens of the street will be dis |
tinctly beneficial.
Some Of the literature that is now COM
ing out on the subject of the Hepburn
bill and other measures of kindred tenn
per is laughable 1t is quite the common
thing for members of the exchange to
"idiotic" crazy etc. and to attempt to
dismiss all apprehensions by loftily de-
claring that not a one of them has the
slightest chance on earth of ever becoming |
a law or if placed upon the statute books
to receive the approval of the courts. Or
course all that sort of argument will
produce profound impression on the resi- |
dents of Oklahoma, Mississippi. Mime |
sofa and other states where the people