The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-08
NICHOLAS WALL
STREET LETTER
Stocks Are Active After the
Election
INDUSTRIALS COMFORTABL
Everybody In Business Seems to Be
Satisfied With Taft's Election and
. Trade Reflects the Gen.
eraI Good Feeling.
INDUSTRIALS COMFORTABL
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

New York. November 6.-If any doubt
existed as to there being a public in
the stock market it was dlspelled the
morning after election. Those eager peo-
pie who sat up all night to be in time
to get their orders into London for open
| ing purchases paid very high prices for
/ the stocks they accumulated and on
some Of the purchases they have not
as yet seen a quota ton at which they
could get out with q profit. The great
big broad impulse was bullish and very
clearly showed the presence of large out
side buying.
AS a stock market proposition the the
DRY was wrong that Mr.. Tafts election
had been discounted before the voting
began. 1t had been partly discounted but
not altogether as the tape proved. Wheth-
er or not the big insiders who had been
running the most stupendous bull cam
| paign in stocks ever known have been
realizing by wholesale distribution of
merchandise bought at low prices. re-
mains to be seen.
The wise" belief in Wall street Is that
|
a week or more and that the great mar
ket manipulators have greatly reduced
their lines enough so almos ito make 1t
TO their interest to help along a reaction
of formidable proportions. At this writ
ing there Is no really tangible evidence
that the programme outlined is being put
into effect
So far as the searchers after informa-
ton are able to see the commanding
influences in the market are still for high
er prices and are not yet ready to I'M
load. If this be the correct diagnosis
then the discount is not yet out of
the markets situation. Money is still
cheap and entirely within the control of
the same men and the same combinations,
cnques and pools command of things
since early last summer. The game is
so very easy and the inducement so
great that there would appear to be no
valid reason why the insiders should not
mark up prices to still higher levels be-
fore taking profits in the big way which
the size OF the game would justify. How
ever the play is one about which the
public can only guess The mechanism
is concealed from view SO far as the
| world at large Is concerned.
Those who attempt to read the mar
ket are quite as much at sea as they have
/ been at any time during the last year.
All that is known is that the average
price of stocks is very much higher than
| 1t was four months ago and that in some
Oh the big favorites quotations are almost
| back to the highest prices in the boom
days before the panic. They have a
deep-down inward feeling chat is, the
non-initated public has the felling) that
this advance is in large part manipulative
and not justified by business conditions
or earnings of the properties concerned.
Yet what difference does that make, La
the inquiry heard, so long as the men in
control of the money market and stock
market elect to carry the play on and
mark up prices still further. There has
probably never been time in the his
tory of the stock exchange when gigan-
tic and dominating manipulation was more
! plainly In evidence or more arrogantly
successful
1t is today more than ever before
! rich mans game The only chance outside
spectators have is to trail their bets
with the blue chips and to depend almost
entirely on the story of the paper for their
information. For four or five months the
tape has told the truth and foreshadowed
the course Of manipulation. Yet it is en-
tirely unsafe to bet too heavily that this
process is to go on indefinitely. There
will come a time when the big fellows
will harvest the crops they have sown
and bank their profits.
Then it will happen that the market will
experience a big break, and the sacrifice
of the lambs will be terrible OF course
/ the lambs understand this in avague sort
| of a way, but they expect in some mirac-
! ulous fashion to be advised of the slaugh-
:, ter in time to escape. This sort of
miracle has never yet occurred, but it is
| always just going to occur. On this oc-
| casion the lambs are to be allowed to get
| away with their own fieeces and their
! lives. About that time hens may be ex-
| pected to grow teeth. Nevertheless and
| Notwithstanding let us all rejoice for good
| times are upon us and money will grow
! on trees. Everybody can reach up and
pluck thereof from the low hanging
| branches.
The important interests behind the big
| industrials are feeling quite comfortable
these days. The danger of hostile admin