The Washington times., 1908-12-15
DAYS GAINS.

NEW YORK. Dec. 15.-There were
certainly two sides to the stock mar
Jet today. The weak closing yesterday
encouraged the bears to test the tent
per OF the list. They hit the line here
and there, and found it yielding. They
tried IL in other spots, and found II
positively unbreakable.
The old time leaders were weak, and
lower. The Gould stocks, with the eX
CeptlOn or Missouri Pacific, we're very
firm in the midst of weakness. Great
Northern ranged up with the strong
list.
Smelter was veTy soft early, but later
on it rallied quite a bit at about the
closing figures of yesterday afternoon.
The weakness in Smelters yesterday and
this morning was a factor Of the gre At
est Importance The Street is of the
opinion that Copper and Smelters are in
a disagreement Of some kind, and that
Copper must sell lower.
Lawson's eruption, although unex-
pected. did not count for much Little
Steel, the OBJECT Of hts TRADE, dropped
=, but 1t rai@ed fairly in last hour OF
the morning.
Bears Cautious.
The whole trouble with the bear play
is that they understand that the hand
of Hartman is still supreme. and they
do not care to go against 1t with too
much liberty
Moreover Governor Hughes has start
ed trouble. No one believes that he can
clip the wings OF the stock exchange
they didn't think he could kin racing
but he did
Bull Pointers Denied.
Perhaps the worst feature Of the sit
uation is the persistence with which
denials are made of bull pointers. Yes
terday It was said that Pennsylvania
had placed large order for rails, even
the apportionment between the big steel
companies was announced. Today the
Pennsylvania denies the tale IN totoN
IT is evident also that the tariff hear
ing has checked the betternent in busi-
ness. People who can wait will hold
off their orders, pending the tarlm re-
vision. II started too soon D
The United States Steel Corporation
IS operating on 90 per cent capacity For
all that II will pay dividends on both
classes Of shares and carry $lOOOOOO
to surplus account, after big purchases
and heavy charges for betterments
Active Early
From the opening until near the noon
hour the volume OF business was very
large. Then. in the noon hour prices
rallied again, until the greater part OF
the losses in many stocks had been re-
covered. whom IT became very dull. with
"A 70 y average losses in the leaders.
Union Pacific, st. Paul, Southern Pa
cihc, Reading, and Pennsylvania, al
though the latter stock showed fair
tone Rock Islands were weak.
Rock Island, Mexican Central, Read
ing, Kansas City Southern, Colorado
Southern. Illinois Central, and Big
Four were the weak stocks on the list
In the industrials. Lead, Railway
Springs, Sugar, and Consolidated Gas
were especially soft Smelter broke to
SSiz, but 1t recovered the loss.
Firm Spots.
Interborough. Great Northern. Erie.
Denver. and Wabash were the firm
spots in the rails. None OF the indus
trials showed any particular tone
In the afternoon the market settled
down to dullness, with SmeIter about
where it closed yesterday, and with
many other stocks but slightly changed.
Steel preferred was liz and the COM
mon 63zs.
The market closed with many losses of
= 10 11a points The strong points were
Great Northern. Southern Pacific. New
ork Central, and such leaders as trad
ers fear to be caught short of.
Smelter was strong, and actually q
higher.
The list was so erratic that only a
study of the list Will show the changes