Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-10
LET GO OF STOCKS
Wall Street Big Wigs Feared
Understands Speech.
HAD COPIES, IT Is SAID
Knew or Thought They Knew What
He Intended to Say.
STOCK EXCHANGE REFORMS
Salutary So Far, But Further Paci.
fcation Is Necessary to
Confidence.
STOCK EXCHANGE REFORMS

Confidence.
Special Correspondence Of The Star
NEW YORK, April 0, 1910.
In the matter of market news of influ
ence this week may be enumerated an
improving agricultural outlook in the
Mississippi valley and the south, addi-
tional gold engagements and shipments,
the spring elections in the towns and
cities Of many states betokening a de-
c.ded democratic and insurgent tendency,
few Delated and unimportant bank fail
ures in Brooklyn and elsewhere, further
progress looking toward a reimbursement
of wage controversies, highly encouraging
reports of railroad and Industrial earn
ings and the return to New York of many
leading f1nanciers and traders who have
been away on their winter vacations.
AS will be observed from the foregoing,
the news has been two-sided and as a net
result of the weeks business a gradual
broadening of the market may be chron-
lcled, together with an enlargement in
the volume of sales and of general specu-
lative interest
Friday Wall street got word that At
torney General Wickershams speech in
Chicago Saturday night was loaded with
dynamite, and that it would be a red-hot
continuation of the radically reform poll
cies of the Roosevelt administration. 1t
was stated on the street that copies of
the speech or full synopses thereof were
in actual circulation among the elect in
banking circles, and that as conse-
quence powerful interests began at once
to get rid Of stocks.
Pressure to Sell Stocks.
Whathey fbic ha tho tr,,o ovn1oao+;.. -,
not Of Fridays slump in prices, it Is
very certain that there was continuous
pressure Of stocks all day long, and that
the supply came from inside quarters. If
the big banking interests did not actu-
ally know in advance what Wickersham
was going to say, they thought they did
and acteu accordingly. 1t was not until
the trading day was over that little peo-
pie got an inkling of the governing mo-
tive behind the heavy liquidation which
had been in evidence from the opening
until me close of the stock exchange ses-
sion.
Another feature not mentioned above Is
the Inauguration of a number of reforms
In the methods and practices on the New
York stock Exchange. This is one of
the things whose Importance is minimized
in wall street, but which may, after all,
be OF large consequence from another and
broader viewpoint. Wall street has been
slow to realize that there was anything
in the criticism and attacks on it's sacred
stock exchange-or that
complaint Of unfair treatment on the
part of the exchange was really entitled
to serious consideration. There has been
until recently arrogant refusal to treat
these complaints with patience, it being
the policy to look upon them and talk
of them as merely idle newspaper gossip
unbacked by facts warranting hostile
campaigns
hnn
the legislature at Albany was about to
force reforms on the stock exchange the
authorities OF that body suddenly con-
cluded that they had better forestall this
action by doing little reforming on their
own account.
Further Reforms Necessary.
The result of this change of heart has
been salutary as far as it has gone. The
trouble is it has not gone far enough yet.
and there will have to be more purifica-
ton and more expression of desire to
tote fair with the public before criticism
ceases and before the exchange is taken
into the full confidence of the outsiders.
This Will doubtless come along in due
time. 1t is quite a forward step for the
exchange to assume larger measure of
responsibility for stocks traded in under
Its auspices. 1t will be harder now for
blind pools to run on the exchange and
for stocks to be traded in about whose
merits there is no means Of actually
knowing. 1t is too much to expect that
the new deal puts an end to manipula-
ton or stock jobbing, but opportunity for
chicanery is greatly reduced. and to that
extent the public given increased protec-
ton.
The spring elections. significant though
they are In many respects, created very
little excitement in Wall street This is
probably due to the fact that 1t Is an off
year and that the business world has
fallen into the habit of regarding these
biennial outbreaks of political discomfort
and independence as almost routine
something not to he treated too seriously
There is also an underlying feeling that,
even though the drift of sentiment as dis
closed by the balloting last Tuesday. be
carried on into the congressional elections,
the worst or best that could happen would
be democratic House in deadlock with
republican Senate. situation which
could be regarded with equanimity and as
result which might mean two years of
comparative peace in financial, indus
trial and commercial circles. 1t is too early
yet for even the manufacturers to look
FORWARD with real alarm to the prospects
of another tariff revision That contIn-
gency Is hardly discussed at this moment.
and is certainly not counted as market
factor.
Able to Spare Gold.