The morning journal-courier., 1908-08-10
FINANCIAL REVIEW Weeks Heavy Trading Signifies Sure Belief in General
 Betterment. BIG GROUPS BACK MARKET Prices of Securities Advancing at Fast CT Rate Than Business Improve
 ment Warrants.

LASt week saw a renewal In force Of tho operations in stocks for an advance in prices as a reflection of the con vinced opinion in the financial com munity of coming improvement In val ues The movement In the stock mar ket bore many evidences of concen- trated origin and of professional de- vices of manipulation to stimulate the advance but its effect in sustaining speculative confidence was none the less marked owing to the general be- lief that powerful financial groups with superior means of information regarding the course of affairs and of business prospects were reported for the bulk of the operations. That these operations were based on a long look ahead was the general admission. the news at hand of betterment of trade and commerce pointing to a rate of re- viva1 moderate in comparison to that of the advance in progress of prices of securities With the tendency towards improvement established there was disposition to assume it's steady con- tinuanos to condition of profitable activity even greater than the past has witnessed. On top of this was the as- sumption that the recent prostration of business and of credit represented an abnormal condition without due ex- plantation in natural economic causes, but resulting rather from baseless fright. This view of conditions was def- nitely formulated by F. H. Hartman in one of several interviews which that tinancier gave out in his progress westward on his vacation tour. These interviews were of material influence on the weeks movement in stocks owing to the prevalent supposition that MT. Hartman. more than any one Individual. has been the active factor in the revival which has occurred in the stock market. While 1t was recog- nized that this public proclamation of views might be regarded as a new phase in a campaign hitherto conduct ed under the seal of reticence and the usual dissimulation of active transac- tions in the stock market the influ- ence on speculative sentiment was still pronounced and induced large fol- lowing in the market. This following was the more encouraged by the ef- fective absorption of stocks offered for sale to take profits or from the promptings of suspicion induced by thls new attitude of public proclamation in the leadership of the revival
 Occasional unsettlement was caused by the reports of damage to the spring wheat crop and of danger to the corn crop from drouth and excessive tenn perature. The official weather map supplied some means of relief from these anxieties by Thursday in the showing of sufficient rains in the corn belt where the greatest need existed.
 The strong money market position in the great centers of capital and es- pecially in New York, is a potent fac tor in the limited confidence which is being reflected in the securities mar ket Reserves continue to accumulate in banks to degree that affords a feeling of security in an abundance of resources to meet all requirements. Money on call in New York loaned be- low one per cent. for the first time in four years. A survey of the sales of new bond issues of a. million dollars and upwards each since the first of the year shows the progress made in the supplying of new capital require ments of the railroads. Most of these sales followed the Pennsylvania $40,- 100000 first mortgage bond sale in April, that event serving to unloose the deadlock in which the bond market had been held. Trustworthy estimates place the aggregate par value of bonds of American corporations sold since the first of the year at upwards of half a billion dollars.