Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-28
DECLINE MARKS CLOSE
ReCeSSions More Than a Point
Common for Actives.
ROCK ISLAND EXCEPTION
Street a Trife Apprehensive Over
Taft Message.
ATTITUDE ON TRUST ISSUES
No Alteration in Money Rates.
Only Trifiing Changes in
Bank Exhibit.
ATTITUDE ON TRUST ISSUES
Special Dispatch TO The Star.

Speclal Dlspatcn 10 Inc star.
NEW YORK. November 21.-The stock
market from the very beginning or nusl-
ness today reversed its entire course of
yesterday with suddenness seldom VII
messed. and the sole cause of this appear
ed to be violent break in the Amalga-
mated Copper shares. Naturally enough
a runor that the much-talked-of copper
combination had BEEN abandoned, or had
been at least Indefinitely postponed-aho
1t must be said that the minds of a good
many people were pretty well prepareo
for story of this sort, in view of the
recent decision of the federal court III
the Standard Oil case and of variety
of occurrences going to show that the
time is not altogether ripe for mergers
of the sort talked of among the copper
mining producers. No official s,a1eIlelil
one way or the other concerning the MAJ
fer was TODAY Forthcoming, and, SO Tar
as ANYTHING of the kind appeared, IL
merely amounted to reiteration OF the
declaration in commission houses tnat
have for some days past been active In
the advance in the copper stocks-that
the deal in the stocks was stnl unoer
way and progressing satisfactorily
Nevertheless, speculative wan stree.
was inclined today to trust the evidence
of the stock market itself rather than
assurances of any other character.
1t may be, and probably was, 1act
that the weakness of the market TO-DAY
was also accentuated by the news mat
the Presidents annual message to con-
gress had not yet been written. ana lilat'
seemingly the President had not alto-
gether made up his mind as to the char
acter of the recommendation he would
make in the annual contribution to Con-
gress. An impression gained ground
that these recommendations might be OF
more unWelcome character. from the
point of view of the financial district,
than has hitherto been imagined.
Financial Unsettlement.
Indeed 1t must be said plainly that
financial unsettlement on this point is
becoming greater each day, and it is aug
mented by reports-many of these ap-
parently of the most trustworthy char
acter-as to statements made to various
individuals by the President in regard to
the existing antitrust laws, which re-
veal a much more radical spirit on the
part of the chief executive than ne mas
hitherto exhibited.
The decline in the market today was so
general and proceeded from such single
origin that it was only subject to the
broad comment that recessions of more
than point were common In most Of the
active stocks.
A notable exception to this movement
was, however, the Rock Island shares,
especially the Rock Island preferred
stock, which moved against the rest of
the market by reason of ports to which
much plausibility is attached, regarding
a prospective dissolution in the near flu
ture of the present Rock Island system.
The speculative supposition on which
this was based was that the st. Louis
and San Francisco property has always
been more or less of burden to the
Rock Island, and that freed from this
burden, the Rock Island will be in better
shape.
There was no alteration today in money
rates. although sterling exchange con-
tinued to hold with remarkable frmness
considering the large current exports Of
gold to South America. Two or three
excellent statements of railroad earnings
were submitted of which the most nota-
BILE were those of the Louisville and
Nashville and Chesapeake and Ohio for
the third week of November. showing
gross increases of sS5, 900 and $4,000 re-
spectively.
Small Comment Over Bank Exhibit.
The weekly bank statement was little
talked of in advance, and created small
comment when it appeared, as it showed
only trifiing changes in the bank po-
sition. In the average figures a de-
crease in reserves of s2940OO was exhib-
tied, a decrease in specie of a little
less than $3.0O0,0O0, and a decrease In
loans of IS, i67 900 offSetting eacn other.
slightly better showing was made
in the actual figures, where the -crease
in loans was put at over S12OOO.0OO and
the loss in cash at s., 100000, resulting in
an increase in surplus reserve of 81
ass, 600.
The attention of the stock market was
taken up during the week with taI-- pro
and con regarding the court decision in
the Standard Oil case, and matters of
ordinary business interest seemed to be
regarded but little.
All data shows that the business of
this country is still at top notch. the
only exception to this being that the
pig iron market has passed into a stage
of comparative quietness. and that or
ders are not flowing into the steel COM
as they did some time since. But 1t
is realized that some slight slackenng
m this regard is almost invariable at
this time of the year.