The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-01-21
Causes Wall Street Failures
For $4,000 900.
EXCHANGE WILL INVESTIGATE.
Drop of Sixty-three Points In Co
lumbus Hooking Coal and Iron
Company Shares Due
to Corner.

New York, Jan. 20.-Directors Of the
Stock Exchange have ordered a
searching investigation into the pool
engineered in the stock of the Column
bus Hooking Coal and Iron company
which led to the failures of Lathrop,
Haskins & Co. and j. NJ. Fiske & Co.,
with liabilities aggregating $S,OOO,Ooo.
The flimsiest bubble that has been
blown in Wall street since the Webb
Meyer syndicate of the nineties failed
was picked when the stock Of the Co
lumbus Hooking Coal and Iron COM
pany dropped 631A points and the two
Stock Exchange firms named were
carried down in the crash.
The embarrassment of these TWO
firms and the smash in Columbus
Hooking Coal stock were surrounded
by facts as romantic as any that have
developed in Wall street in years.
The pool in this stock was under the
management of the veteran manipula-
tor, James X. Keene. Before the com
bination took hold it had been classed
among the worthless "cats and dogs
The pool advanced it 20 points with
hardly any reaction, and they drew
into their net by circulation OF stories
which would have done credit to the
Imagination of the old time mining
promoter little investors all over the
country, who have suffered the loss OF
fortunes in the collapse.
When the Lathrop-Haskins pool
started the movement the Columbus
Hooking Coal and Iron company was
a harmless concern out in Ohio, which
did a small business in the mining of
coal and iron. At first they claimed
that its earning power had been great
Iy increased from the manufacture of
bricks. The Wall street notion now is
that these must have been gold
bricks
The next exploit was the discovery
of an oil gusher on the company's s
property, and the guileless bought the
stock from $50 a share up to 500 on
rumors of the great earnings that
were being made out Of the oil.
Why the Stock Exchange authorities
list or how banks could have loaned
money to the pool, with Columbus
Hooking Coal and Iron as collateral,
are the inquiries today following the
failures and the collapse on the Stock
Exchange.
The Columbus Hooking pool is said
10 have consisted of thirty members.
Its load finally became too heavy, as
banks were discriminating against the
shares as collateral and the operations
of the pool were rendered precarious
by the fact that they had to be con
Quoted largely on call money loans,
quotations for which early this month
rose as high as IA per cent.
The firm of LathrOp, Haskins Il Co
was formed in February, |S99, sue
ceeding Lathrop, Smith & Co., and
consisted of Henry Stanley Haskins
who was the board member, and Hen
ry Stanton Leverich as a special part
ner. Fannie Graves Lathrop, widow
of L. c. Lathrop, was another special
partner. Her husband up to the time
of his death was vice president OF
the Columbus Hooking company. Hen
ry S. Haskins is the president
The suspension OF J. NJ. Fiske
Co. was announced about fifteen min
utes after Lathrop, Haskins & Co. fail
ed. This firm was loaded up will
10000 shares at high prices. In al
hour one transaction showed loss o.
$4,000.