Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-05
NETWORK STOCKS AND BONDS
Consolidated Gas Drops Twenty.Six
Points on Adverse Court Decision.
ENTIRE LIST IS AFFECTED
LeAseninE of Industrial Activity and
Railroad Traffic II Also "A Fac
tor = = Bond Market il
Irregular.

NEW YORK, Jan. "A very heavy specu-
latlon miscarried by the loss of the Con-
solldated Gas suit to overthrow the New
YORK state law limiting the charge allowed
to be made for Illuminating gas In New
YORK City to 50 cents per 1000 feet. How
excessive has been the speculation based
on an expected contrary decision 1t would
require a review Of the course Of the stock
Tor many months past to decide. When
ever the supreme court was IN session Il
has been the regular thing, as Monday APP
preached, to run up the price OF Consoli-
dated Gas on the assumption that the court
was now about to hand down It's decision
IN favor of the company. The abrupt an
nouncement that the company had lost It's
suit threw the holders of the stock into a
panic and an almost perpendicular drop of
%h points, by Intervals as much as . points,
was the consequence.
So violent a movement even in a single
stock could not be expected to leave the
general market unaffected by sympathy.
The approach to frenzy, however, in some
OF the selling that accompanied the slump
In the gas stocks must be attributed to a
state of uncertainty over the general POSI-
ton into which the stock market was
coming.
The movement throughout the morning
had been feverish and unsettled, marked by
spasmodio advances in selected stocks, ac-
companied by heavy realizing under cover
OF the sustaining influence of the advances.
The methods followed to incite some of
these advances and the inspiration for the
allegations on which they were based had
a d quieting effect on speculative confidence
and gave an impression of unstable forces
working for the advance. TIL collection
Of a great mass of well-informed and in
fluenttial opinion in numerous financial re-
views revealed so widespread a skepticism
Of the warrant for much OF the later stages
OF the rise in stock prices that speculative
sentiment could not but be impressed. The
Consolidated Gas case incident proved the
decisive factor in determining the shifting
tide of that sentiment. TIE immediate fore 2
of the gas case was modified by the way
left open for a renewal of the suit and was
partly neutralized by the clinchlng of the
Standard Oil success in contesting the S2s,-
100000 fine. The heavy arrears of the over
charges collected by the gas company pend
ing the final decision of the suit Offered
a sufficiently serious inroad upon resources
I'm hand. A greater influence from this
decision grew out of the extent to which
the assumption has been built on since the
election that corporation activities were TO
be free from restraint in any degree which
would impair their profitable employment.
To the more volatile minded speculative
class the action of the supreme court seems
to have come as a rude jolt.
OF deeper significance was the news, less
attended to on the floor of the Stock eX-
change, OF the lessening activity in various
Industrial lines and in railroad traffic. The
number of surplus idle freight cars in the
country, after rising for several weeks, is
back now to a figure not touched since
early in September: Railroad traftc man
ayers admit a continuance of this tendency
up TO the current returns OF traffic. There
was seasonable easing OF the money mar
kets following the yearly settlements, eX-
cept at Berlin, where discount rates hard
ened. The enormous changes in the Narl-
Gus items of the weekly statement of the
Imperial bank of Germany revealed how
great was the strain Of the annual settle
ments at that point. The strength shown
by Pennsylvania and some of the other
trunk line railroad stocks today seemed to
be due to an attempted adjustment to the
large gain in the price of New York Central
on Saturday. The rise in Miss ouri Pacific
was not explained by any news.
Bonds were irregular. Total sales, par
value, 81, 67O,O0l. United States bonds were
unchanged on call,
The following were the closing quotations
on stocks and bonds: