The sun., 1909-06-27
GOSSIP or WALL STREET.

" HA<A< Oh AhEIs
The market opened weak and IRREGULAR
under the influence Of drive on Union
Pacific preferred. which soon beat the prioe
down to 1904. Only two days before It
had sold at iio to the accompaniment Of
multitude OF rumors. no one of which then
or since has received the slightest encour-
Asement from bankers in position TO
speak with authority. The speculation
was thus similar to that in wabash pre-
ferred. which shot UP week before last on
a number Of since exposed canards and
cropped back to the starting point Monday.
Zach stimulated bullish speculation on the
ADVANCE and led to q drive on the entire
list when traders became convinced that
the movement was purely speculative and
its alleged causes fictitious. However, the
boomerang action In Union Pacific pre-
ierred was not as effective as was that In
wabash preferred In depr essins prices.
The movements differed In other Inn
portant respects. or at least In points Of
Importance to the men behind the move
ments. That In Wabash preferred was
crudely designed clumsily executed and
unsuccessful. The collapse left the manip-
ulators with more stock than they had In
the BEGINNING and with the expenses Of the
campaign to carry. 1t was nothing more
or less than clumsy failure. The other
seemingly was successful In its main obi cot,
which undoubtedly was to make money
on an advance In Union Pacific common by
the simple but seldom used expedient Of
buying the preferred. : c!ese!S held stock
ana one which can be moved upward very
oheaply on very moderate purchases. The
buying OF that stock was nicely timed, for
Mr.. Hartman, the only man who might be
disposed to put large block OF stock on
the market and thus defeat the plan, was
away In southeastern Europe. No trouble
could be expected from him, nor ccrld an
ofncial denial OF rumors be secureT from
him or Mr.. Kahn, also In Europe. Natur-
ally as the preferred advanced all sorts
OF rumors sprans up. and the common
moved sharply forward accordingly. II
was selling at Iss when the NOV ement In
the preferred began. got up to is4H at the
top OF the movement and has since sold
down to but loi Y and closed yesterday at
lo2k. Obviously a handsome profit has
been attainable from the speculation In the
common.
Naturally q market in which fluctuations
seemingly Of pure gambling nature are
conspicuous is not attractive to the public
and has little commission house participa-
tion. Naturally enough, accordingly, out
side interest has dwindled from the time of
the Wabash episode and through the Union
Pacific speculation. though of course the
continued hot weather Of the week was Of
itself suficient TO drive men away from
business. Yesterday the market seemed
almost entirely professional. with practi-
cally all the price movements governed by
floor trading. Nor was there much OF that.
In view Of the temptation to retire from
the market or 90 short Of tia temptation
held out by the heat, the professional
gambling and the indeoision Of brokers re-
sardinG the market position n-its strength
In the latter part OF the week was a matter
OF surprise to the majority Of traders.
Neither the .asons above mentioned nor
the perplexities OF the tarin situation nor
the effort to tax corporation earnings ap-
peared to have brought out stocks from
any important quarter. The Steel shares
and all the others which have been prin-
cipally fancie1 by men OF prime market
Importance held flrm yesterday as on most
previous days Of the week and were as well
held seemingly as before the Wholesale
profit taking in them earlier In the month
II was also matter Of comment that the
market had absorbed readily the stocks put
on 1t when certain brokers were curtailins
their lines OF stocks. As matter Of fact, as
was pointed out at the time. the prompt action
Of the Stock Exchange authorities on the
Hughes commissions Recommendations has
strengthened the market by strengthening
the houses which had made q practice Of
doing business on thin mstgins. In one
quarter in particular the liquidation on
Monday relieved the market Of an element
Of weakness. The action Of the exchange
authorities also. combined with the good
bill Of health given by the commission. can
not but assure the public that the chance OF
loss T. ON failure Of brokers Is now reduced
to q minimum. In this connection IL may
or may not be more than a coincidence that
the small house which closed Its doors this
week failed when it was still able to pay It's
customers in full. In the failures Of the
previous eighteen months customers got
so little as to justify the remark that is
cents on the dollar seemed the union scale
Of payment in Stock Exchange failures.
An increase Of SIC, 600. 900 In surplus re-
serve gave another striking demonstration
OF the ease in money. which means ease In
carrying stocks.