East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-08-23
AUTO Craze WORRIES
HARP|ES OF WALL ST.
WTrHDRAWS MILLIONS FROM
STOCK EXCHANGE CHANNELS
Howl Emanates From Financial Macs
from Because Craze for Joy Wa
gons' Turns Aside Wealth That
Would be Engulfed I'm Wall Street.

New York.-Wan street estimates
that approximately S500,000,000 will
be spent this year by Americans for
the purchase of automobiles. OF this
vast sum probably S5 per cent will
be for machines of domestic make.
the only foreign product in which
will be rubber for the tires. of which
about $75,0O0,000 will be used.
1t is computed by statisticians of
New Yorks financial district that half
of this outlay would be used for stock
market speculation but for the nation
wide craze for ''joy cars" With such
an enormous amount of money di-
verted from stock trading channels
conditions in the street are now akin
to those that prevailed during. the
1907 panic. In six months there has
been a shrinkage of $150,00O.000 in
the market value of securities dealt
in upon the stock exchange, due main
ly to lack of public support. The
lambs. always a fruitful source of re-
venue for the willy bulls and bears.
no longer gambol with their old alb
andon and have become as scarce as
hens teeth about Wall. Nassau &
Broad streets All that are left are
the professional traders to whom the
limited pickings are not over-attrac-
tive.
In the hope of checking the spread
of the automobile tide, the assistance
of local bankers has been enlisted.
The latter are now vociferously de-
precating the mania. They claim it
is inoculating the small business men
of the country as we'll as the affluent
merchants of the city, and that In
order to crafty their appetite for
machines this class is mortgaging its
homes and property This cry OF
alarm however is not borne out by
the mortgage records which show but
a normal state of borrowing on real
estate. Neither do the reports of the
clearing house indicate that bank de-
posits are being appreciably with
drawn to enable customers to buy
machines. What money is being used
by the public for the purchase of
cars is its surplus cash which in
other years found its way into stock
exchange houses for less exhilerat-
ing employment. This is the money
that created inflated AMI fictitious
markets and enabled the gamblers of
the street to live in opulence while
their clients grow two grey hairs
where there was one before.
Throughout the financial district,
especially among those who depend
upon the outside for their business,
there seems to be a disposition to de-
plore the recent purchase by ]. Pier
pont Morgan of the controlling inter-
est in one of the largest of the do
mestic automobile factories. They
think it will have a bad effect on the
market and help to retard the return
of prosperity in the street by giving
undue prestige to the industry to
whose development they attribute
most of their troubles. Their chag-
rim recalls the feeling existing in the
district some years ago during one
of the intermittent periods of depres-
sion to which it is subject, when John
D. Rockefeller instead of supporting
a declining market dumped several
of his millions into the stock of the
quick lunch restaurants Of the big
eastern cities, which have since net
ted him handsome profits.
In reply to Wall streets lament
anent the diversion of money from the
stock market, the president Of one OF
the large automobile companies this
week threw a jolt into the enemy's
camp in a statement saying that the
public had grown tired of frittering
away its savings in Wall street gamb-
ling that rarely netted it anything
but headaches and insomnia, and had
determined to get some wholesome
pleasure out of its cash through the
purchase of machines that would en-
able them to give enjoyment and re-
creation to others as well as to them
selves.