The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-18
FINANCIAL REVIEW.

New York, May 17.-Prices of securi- ties advanced last week with growing impetus and increasing volume of transactions, the total sales on Thurs day rising to the largest of any day since last summer. before the financial crisis developed.
 The persistence of the advance and it's freedom from influence or check by events seeming -unfavorble to val ues, gave 1t impressiveness and had the effect of conv erting a growing num- Der of skeptics in the professional operating class, who had contested the advance by sh ort sales at various stages and had been forced repeatedly to cover at a loss The abandonment of the opposition by this class and their turn to the long side had not a little to do with the increased animation and buoyancy of the market The easiness with which obstacles were overcome and prices aggressively advanced from the inception of the present movement has been conv incing proof of the wide resources commanded by the leaders of the movement. who are commonly believed to include great banking houses and individual capitalists whose influence commands the resources of the most powerful group of capitalists In the country. The suspicion of ma nipulative origin for the rise in prices, with the purpose of creating a semblance of improvement where the reality did not exist, served to hold aloof from the market most of the gem eral public which generally joins in an important market movement. The confidence and constancy with which the movement is pursued had growing influence on sentiment last week and had the creasing effect of causing a belief In the satisfaction thus expressed on the part of the great capitalists with the degree, of improvement in affairs. In the department of the money mar ket this improv ement was clearly enough perceptible.
 For the easy market to further the success of financial plans of corpora tions, however, there was necessary the addition of a demonstration of con fdence in the security of values. The rise in the stock market has operated as such a demonstration. The skepti- cism with which it was accepted at first was due to the conflicting evidence of news affairs in general. This discrep- ancy continued last week. in spite of the growing force of the rising stock market tide. That prices of securities continued to rise in spite of unfavor- able industrial and commercial advices was assumed to mean that promising signs could be discerned beyond this
 
 large commitments to holdings of stocks which were being made from day today in the stock market. For instance, the declared purpose of the principal allied interests in the iron industry to hold prices of that great basic commodity was evidently quietly abandoned and practically an open market for iron established. While conditions there are still greatly unset tied and no change is reported in the demand for finishe ed products 1t is con- ceivable that the way to improvement may be opened by the new demand for iron brought out by the concessions. The same holds true of the copper in- dustry, where successive reductions in price have been of discouraging effect while necessarily representing progress towards the stage of stability where demand will overtake supply and re- vival of the industry set 1t. Great in- fiuence in 'reviving effective demand for commodities is relied on from the success of new bond issues by the railroads and the consequent supply of resources for resumption of buying and construction.
 As a veritable speculative medium. which the stock market undoubtedly is,