The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-03
BALKAN WAR FELT
 IN STOCK MARKET Political Nervousness Noted
 in Certain Quarters GOOD TIMES AHEAD
Only Discordant Note Comes From Element Organizing Scare" Among Beneficiaries of
 High Protection
By W. c. NICHOLAS

By w. c. NICHOLAS
 New York, November 2.--(Special.)- The stock market has had worrying .s week. Between continued selling of American stocks by frightened Europeans on the one hand and an outburst of po- liticai nervousness at home. prices yield ed and bullish sentiment became en- feebled.
 The loss in prices was most severe, but the only enthusiasm on the bull side that could be reused was when the market became oversold in spots, giving the pro fessional traders chance to make turn by frightening the oversold bears into covering their shorts
 Trading was on large scale, a fact which goes to show the existence of an active speculative spirit, yet nobody seemed to get anywhere Reai control. ling sentiment seemed to be in a state of confusion, or rather of uncertainty as to the immediate future. None of the im- portant people in the street has doubts as to the ultimate outcome. but the i'm mediate foreground is not entirely clear. The situation is befogged. Many of the a strongest and most powerful bulls in the street are holding back. They are openly discouraging aggressive action for a mar ket upturn. They think this one of the times when the safest play is not to play and wait.
 To surface observation the market has been nervously weak most of the time of late and the speculation has been as to the duration of uncertainty. Funda- mental conditions are recognized. as being superbly strong. but just for the mo- ment traders are racked with a feeling that the situation may have dynamite concealed somewhere about it ready to explode on slightest provocation. The Americans have settled the Balkan war bithely and easily, but for some reason that is not clear to us here at home Eu- ropeans persist in looking at the matter from a-different viewpoint. Liquidation of American securities held abroad was resumedsthis week, after it had been de- eided that they had sold all they wanted to and were taking back some of the se- curities they had parted with under panic influences.
 There seems to have been a mistake about this. The international banking houses reluctantly confess that they are selling great many more stocks for ac- count of their foreign clients than they are buying and that there is no let-up. Estimates as to the extent of this for eign liquidation run as high as 1000, 900 shares. Expressed at par valuation this would mean $100 000.000, which is a good --sdeal of money for American banks to raise when they pressed In other di- ;, rections about-to the limit of their re- sources. The flow of currency west and south is at flood tide and it will be month or six weeks before it stops and turns the other way. Legitimate bus mess continues to make heavy demands upon banking resources all over the coun- try and although the banks are getting high interest, there is a limit to their re- sources.
 Stocks of the higher class. having an international market have suffered slow dragging decline-not so large by actual tape measurement but impressive. Trad CTS know where the stock comes from, but very few of them are blessed with aggressive market management at the moment. Thus while the record shows a reaction from the high prices of the be- ginning of last month of to 12 points in the speculative favorites, the standard is- sues have also declined relatively almost as much-a very unusual procedure. Read ing lost Il points. Copper Il. Shelters 10, Lehigh Valley 1S. Union Pacific Ssl. while New York Central, Baltimore and Ohio, Northern Pacific, Great Northern, St. Paul ands Chesapeake and Ohio slipped back to points. Steel receded 6ia points on the high price quoted at the beginning of October. not a very serious setback when the fact is taken into account that hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of real stocks were dumped on the market .s from inside and outside sources. This immense volume of stuff was absorbed in wonderful manner
 The street is puzzling itself where the goods went to. There seems to be no limit to the buying power. which is not feazed by offerings, however large. Penn syvania only sold down 21z points from the top price of the year which was made last May. There are now 73000 stock holders in this company and the mass Is not easily moved by ordinary market fluctuations. Canadian Pacific slumped back 25 points from the high figure of 2S3 reached August 15 last. This. man. moth corporation has been sowing the seeds of bitter hostility throughout the dominion and is beginning to suffer the evil effects of it's boundless arrogance.
 Prices may go lower but the feeling is strong among conservative investors and speculators who think and see beyond the end of their noses that fundamental conditions justify the investment of money in stocks around current quotations. The chorus of opinion among the big men of affairs in every quarter is that the coun- try is in splendid shape and that the out look is for continuation of revived good times
 There is hardly discordant note to be heard excepting from the elemen. which is now organizing scare among the benefciaries of high protection. As stated in foregoing paragraph ths propaganda is having some market effect but the election will soon be over and ouiet restored in the quarter now the scene of trouble Strange to say. liquida- tiona and price declines have not been sensational among the newly organized and exploited industrials. described in the street as wild cats, cats and dogs, wind blown things, rainbows and the like. This may may have been because the stocks were not so widely scattered as they were supposed to be. The big trading in them may have been of the laundry, kInd-handing the stuff back and forth without actual transactions 'Washing' is another phrase used to de-