Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-03
REBUFFS TO BEARS
Net Changes on Wall Street
Generally Advances.
LOSSES BY THE SELLERS
Talk of Bad Times Encounters Con-
trary Facts.
VIEWS. OF AN OBSERVER
Possibility of Coal Strike Most
Troublesome Factor in the
Business Situation.
VIEWS. OF AN OBSERVER
BY II. ALLOWAY,

Copyright. 1912. r. G. Hopper, n. ",
NEW YORK, March Bear specula-
tors have had an active week. They have
pummelled quotations every day assidu-
ousy. They have been able to dwell upon
Developments, which they proclaim as
forceful, extraordinary, bound-to-be-in-
fiuential, and all that. In this list that
they gruesomly schedule are coal strike
prospects, New England labor complica-
tons, congressional money trust investi-
cations, Rooseveltitis, and some things
lesser. Two or three times during the
week the market seemed wavering-offer-
ings We're much more consequential tnan
were bids. But at every apparently criti-
cal stage something Of consequential
caliber appeared upon the upholding side;
and the net result Of the week is that
for as a rule net changes are generally
upon the side of advances.
It is material in any fair consideration
of market conditions to Keep in mind the
fact that for months and months past
quotations have been grilled daily, nuch
the greater part of the exertiOns OF pro-
fessional Wall street having been Devoted
to efforts to mark down prices. Ihe
talent of the stock exchange has been IN
large majority upon the bear side
There has been recognition OF the pup
lies abstention from speculation, tnere
have been calculations based upon the
aloofness of the public as to the invest
ment market. They who are traders upon
the stock exchange who regard and meas
ure every element from the VieWpoinl
Of immediate price possibilities. nave been
and still are agreed that the absence OF
the public from the market must be detri-
mental doubly-there being no influence
to advance prices in the absence of pup
lie absorption: and that, because OF the
publics absence, quotations must natufai-
depression. This gloom theory has logi-
cally enough expanded till in Wall street
it has become popular to rec1te that the
New York Stock Exchange Is the mirror
of the country's general business sltua-
tion. and that therefore financial, COM
mercial and industrial conditions are bad.
Actual Business Prosperity.
They who devote energy in trying to
promote nrvousness by talking bad times
find themselves running up continually
against the jagged facts of actual BUSH
ness prosperity. AS over and over insist
ed in this review the country at large-ac-
cordinx to authorities that are not specu-
lative and who have the very pest or OPP
portunities for knowledge-the business or
the country is going along evenly, not ex-
cited it is true by anything like Doom
but satisfactorily active, satisfactorily
profitable. Apropos of this fair statement
interest vests in a letter to It's clients
issued by one of the brokerage ana nank-
ing firms of the stock exchanged. A.
Housman & Co.. who write:
helpful to a speculator, but it is, never
theless, interesting. The writer has just
returned from journey to the south
and southwest: he covered altogether
more than $3.50 miles, and passed through
nineteen states. Whether he was on the
Atlantic Coast Line, the Southern rail-
way, the Louisville and Nashville, the
Illinois Central or the Pennsylvania rail-
road, he saw continually the same things
All the seats in the trains were taken
His fellow passengers were not pleasure
seekers. They We're merchants, statesmen,
planters, manufacturers and producers
all intent upon doing business and all In
a hurry to get where they were going.
of view. They cared very little about
politics. They had no time to attend to
the money trust. They thought little of
who would be nominated for President or
whom the voters of the country would
elect to that Office. What they were
interested in primarily was business. es-
pecially the present years agricultural
production. Though Wall street would
hardly believe it, all these people expect
to be prosperous. with good crops, no
cannot make a trip like this and see so
many people doing business all the time
without realizing that the country is con-
tinually engaged in creating wealth, MAX
ing assets. These conditions will tell.''
Especial significance attaches to this
statement (which, much mangled has been
somewhat quotedD by reason Of the fact
that the firm of Housman & Co. has init
mate relations with Bernard NJ. Baruch,
who by common consent has become the
leading active effective operator in the
present market.
Stocks Held in Firm Hands.
They who are prudent upon the bull
side of the market will not, however.
delude themselves into the notion that
everything marketwise is safe and salts
factory and understandable simply be-
cause the professional raiders of the mar
ket have so far accomplished little-de-
pressing recitals being offset by state
ments like the foregoing made by Mr..
Housman in summary of his personal
experience in a trip covering some thou
sands of miles through the west and
south and southwest. 1t is probably true
that at the present time there is an
almost unprecedentedly small proportion
of stocks carried upon margin in Wall
street. They who do hold stocks are
known generally to be among financiers
the very strongest in the country. Some