Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-04-04
LAID FOR THE BEARS
Leaders Direct Slaughter
of Short Sellers.
CHEAP MONEY A HELPER
Several Reasons Behind the Upward
Movement.
SOME SURPRISING FEATURES
Marvellous Firmness Of Industriais
in the Face of Demoralized Trade.
Conditions an Enigma.
SOME SURPRISING FEATURES
Special Correspondence Of Tie Sta.

Special Correspondence Of Tie Sta
NEW YORK. April 5. 1909.
The advance in the stock market caught
myriad of shorts who suffered heavy
losses. A spirit of pessimism had stead
lily grown in strength and gloom until
ninety-nine in hundred people in Wall
street were either short of stocks or felt
that prices were bound to go lower. This
is the sort of feeling that leads to the
creation of a very large short interest.
Business conditions are about as gloomy
could be imagined. In many of the
trades and industries something akin to
decentralization existed. Men we're being
laid off by the thousands and tens Of
thousands and wages were undergoing
reduction all along the line.
The tariff agitation in Washington be-
gan to take on the color of real warfare
over revision. and altogether the sifua-
point the chief redeeming feature was
found in the immense Accommodations of
w-priced money. and this is always
standing invitation for market activity.
The market leaders found the situation
on the stock exchange exceedingly IA
Vorable for campaign, and they ac-
cordinsly laid for the bear element.
Everything that could possibly be done
to encourage the enlargement Of the
short interest was done.
For week or two before the screws
were put on the bears found il impossi-
Bile to depress prices to amount to any
thing. This mystifed them not little.
AT the same time they were encouraged
to believe that by going in little deeper
and selling few more stocks they could
bring about sharp break, and SO they
kept at II. Then prices began to move
up and they kept moving up steadily.
ment this week. The slaughter of short.
sellers was very impressive. and Wall
street is full Of dead and dying.
Discounting the Future.
Very few pretend to understand the
stration. On the surface there appears
to be very little excuse for it beyond
the factors of cheap money and unwieldy
short interest. Those who love to be-
leve that they are deep thinkers and pro-
found market students profess to see in
the rise in prices and Increased volume
knowledge by big people of the near ap-
proach of good times. The stock mar
ket shows almost uncanny prescience in
the matter of discounting the future.
anu TIME again II mas gone I'D or
down in long sweeps in a fashion unac-
countable to the ordinary observer. only
to show later on that the movements
were dictated by a wide range of in
formation as to what was going on and
as to what was likely to happen from the
known direction of business and financial
currents.
It is the general hope that the recovery
which has taken place in the stock mar
ket during the last few weeks portends
he rnv Turning in lon hot
while surface signs are unfavorable there
is really good ground for anticipation Of
decided forward action looking to broad
Improvement. The upward movement in
the stock market last year was in
sense false start, yet it has been pos
sible for the public and the great manip-
ulators to maintain prices within a rea-
sonable limit Of the top figures estab-
many of the favorite issues are very
nearly at the outside quotations ruling
ninety days ago. Union Pacific for in
stance. made a new high price since the
panic. almost as high as the extreme
tiptop quotations two years ago. Many
of the other standard stocks have Jared
almost as we'll.
Firmness of Industrials.
One of the notable features of the
market during the last few weeks, has
been the frmness with which the leading
kind of unfavorable development The
news from Washington has been about
as bad as it we'll could be, and the in
dustrial situation has been confronted
with a certainty almost of important
reductions in the protection schedules
This knowledge did not seem to feaze
owners Of securities of the Industrial
class. Even the iron and steel stocks,
which are particularly under attack,
seemed almost Indifferent TO what was
going on in Washington.
1t would almost appear that the own
ers Of Industrial properties had come TO
the unanimous conclusion that the ex-
listing range of quotations represented
fully discounted situation. They acted
as though they had made up their minds
that nothing worse could happen than
had happened and that any change must
be for the better. This feeling was con-
spicuously reflected in the stocks of the
United States Steel Corporation. Both
common and preferred regained seven
or eight points from the low price seen
three or four weeks ago. Even the les
ser steel stocks were strong. although it
is said by everybody that these are the
things that must suffer most in the
event of a heavy cut in duties on iron
and steel.
The market in it's present condition
and appearance is certainly an enigma
Especially puzzling are the copper stocks
Amalgamated Copper, which is regarded
as the index of the speculative copper
situation. has been marvelously firm, al
though the metal market is almost de-
moralized. With copper itself selling
only fraction over II cents, produce
ton is booming, and the stuff is piling
up in every market and at every mine.
There is no sort Of understanding among
the big copper producers at the present
time looking to a restriction of output,
and even the experts in the trade confess
inability to see clearly an outcome
Here is what j. Parke Claiming, a Bos-
ton authority. has to say on the general
copper situation:
Excessive Mining Output.
Il do not believe it will be possible to
get the big mining companies to agree
to restriction Of output. although. to
my mind. such action is greatly needed
at the present time. What a monu-
mental absurdity it is to keep pouring
on the market an avalanche of copper
the largest in history. while con-
sumption is not over so or 65 per cent
of that OF two years ago. This should
make all the more imperative a con-
servation Of the copper ore bodies 1t is
an economic waste for a copper mining
company to exhaust it's ore reserves and
sell the copper product for actually less
than the cost of its production. and yet