Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-24
ACTIVE AND Strong
Wall Streets Improvement
Continues and Is Marked.
NOW HAVE REAL MARKET
Broad Gauged Trading Conducted
Toward Unmistakable Betterment.
OWNERS OF STOCK SIT TIGHT
Content to Hold on to What They
Already Possess-Let Security
Holdings Go.
NOW HAVE REAL MARKET
OWNERS OF STOCK SIT TIGHT
BY H. ALLOWAY.

improvement continues becomes more
marked. Generally throughout the whole
stock exchange list there develops both
activity and strength It is still recog-
nized by close observers that the move
ment under way is largely professional,
however. and this view is not much con-
tested even by those who are chiefly en-
gagged in its promotion: but that criticism
does not dispose of the fact that finally
we do have a real market one In which
broad-gauged trading can be conducted
and whose obvious tendency is toward an
unmistakable betterment in Wall street
conditions. The man who cares to sell
finds ready purchasers. This is new.
Further. the seller discovers that pur-
chasers are no longer pickering over lit
tie fractions in their transactions
1t has not been difficult to foresee what
comes to pass No fact could have been
palmer than that for months past the
owners of securities were indisposed to
let their holdings go, bearish influences,
however urgent, failing to dislodge stocks
What has not been evident-and which
fairness must confess to be still uncer-
tain-ts disposition or readiness upon
the part OF the public to join in buying
movement. Owners of stocks seemed lust
content to sit tight, hold on to what they
already possess. without caring to add to
their COMMITMENTS passive mood eX-
tremely sad for Wall street in that. how
ever much confidence it might show it
provided no brokers' commissions
Leading up to the present broadened
market there has been persistent strength
In most of the standard issues, for while
there has been no show of buoyancy there
has been continued firmness, with day-bv-
day gains scored almost without notice
just creeping market, adding eighths
ana quarters, one upon another, till of a
sudden they who compare quotations are
awakened to the fact that while there has
seemed to be only listlessness the list
is long Of stocks that have actually gone
up ten and a dozen points apiece-stocks
like Union Pacific. Amalgamated Copper.
Steel Trust common and others that are
figuring as leaders.
Nothing strange in this exhibit Most
prices that have gone up were entitled to
go up. The market has been for year
and more under severe pressure from in
terests not ordinarily included in the bear
list. Politics has bred belligerency. 1t has
been popular to talk hard times, when
there have been no hard times Anything
akin to progressive investment spirit
has been discouraged even in quarters
were normally the stanchest confidence
Is outspoken. 1t has been fashionable. if
not to be pessimistic to be at least finan-
cially Indifferent. Thus what is now en-
gaging the attention is virtually revo-
luton.
Business News Is Good.
Business news the country over is
mostly good news. Labor complications
are relatively slight. aside from the coal
trade contestant the issue there Is GER
tainly quite apart from any question of
good times or bad times-haS to do with
the perennial bargain making which un-
fortunately attaches to a system whose
chlef aim seems periodically to incite i'll
feeling where reasons for i'll feeling are
not only unnecessary but ineXcusable.
Methods are bad. Conditions are not 1t
is abnormal that the public should be
forced to suffer and it is not fair that in
vestors should be grilled-all that crude
hiring system may persist cause snarls
and spread disquietude.
But labor troubles are not general Full
hours and satisfactory wages are the
rule. Nowhere Is heard any suggestion
that labor Is to be asked to make con-
ceSSiOnS-Such changes as impend are
upon the side of benefit for the employe.
And what is being displayed with spe-
cial clearneSS in daily news developments
now is that the country is upon the out
start of an industrial reawakening. No
fact has been more wet blanket upon
those who desire to be optimistic than the
attitude that has been maintained for so
long by the great railway systems of the
country in reference to their policy of
purchases for maintenance. Not merely
have the roads almost as a whole been
at a standstill SO far as concerns eX-
but there has prevailed a prac
tically universal rule to practice economy
up to the very utmost possible limit.
There has been no buying except actually
from hand to mouth. Old rails have had
to last, old cars have had to keep on in
service. 1t has been nearly basic cor
poration creed to spend grudgingly when
at all. Progressive Pennsylvania has
stood almost alone in it's confidence, pro-
Apart from consideration of public serv-
Ice this policy necessarily has influenced
important business conditions. Railroad
equipment manufacturers, for example,
have suffered their worst year in de-
cades. Continuance of such extreme
policy would be bound to produce discom-
forting results wider spread than for the
directly involved. Some indi-
cation of what this phase Of the situation
has represented is graphically disclosed
IN the steel trusts. just issued annual fig
ures-tens on tens of millions of dollars
shrunken in a single corporations net
However-and this is the point that Wall
street begins to comprehend-howeve
there is change appearing. 1t has gotten
beyond the stage of hope, it becomes
cheeringly tangible. Virtually every inn
portant railroad in the country has al
Sduy DeCOiue OF dITeduy ANNOUNCES DTOau-
er gauge program. Purchases, delayed
to the last minute, are swelling into pro-
portions that suggest even an approach
ng embarrassment for manufacturers
whose maximum facilities may even be
by demands. What this sig
1f1es is not difficult of calcuation-and
neasurably accounts for enthusiasm upon
he part of those whose understanding is
hat busy manufacturer means busy mer-
chants.
Agreeable Money Market.
An agreeable money market makes pos
sible the more liberal railway buying
policy. Abroad there are disagreeable
features in finance. Great Britain and
notably disturbed by factors
savagely irksome. Indeed, United States
confidence and United States
strength and facilities have been
actually saving a foreign situation heavy
with ominous possibilities. At home our
financial problems are largely technical.
There. is healthfulness in our basic con-
litions. No stress threatened, the country
s equipped to take care of itself COM
'ortably, however much business demands
nav expand And this is a feature OF
for broad and active Sc
,urity market whose consequence is be-
yond overestimate That Wall street re-
llizes this is manifest in the attitude of
he most conservative interests.
Agricultural expectations are cheerful
or so far as crop calculations can be
made at this season of the year the out |
ook is all the farmer can ask.
1t is a notable feature of the improve |
nent showing in the general market that
here is little show of such manipulation |
Is professional pool operations represent. |