Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-27
Weakness Not Shown in New York,
However, Until Middle Of Week.
POLITICS DEMANDS AUDIENCE
Some Traders See Panic No Matter
Which Of the Candidates
Is Elected.
BY 81. ALLOWAY.

W. SoAAot pe ignored mere IL seems;
though till the middle Of this week there
mas been splendid indication to the con-
trary. The New York security market
began to waver Wednesday. There was
new activity. there was new weakness
conspicuous stocks yielding substantia ally.
No part of this development had to do
with any home condition, American crops,
American enterprise and industry
American finance and commerce-every
American business department-signally
attesting national prosperity,
But incidental to international disturb
ance abroad-every foreign country be-
comes an unmasked powder magazine
there deve-op risk relations in finance
whose tentacles reach out their touch
ing points to the very uttermost limits,
and with real fighting begun. with
armies in the field. with cities under
siese, with the looming possibility that
an empire may be partitioned) it is but
naturaEsimply. it is UNDERGRADUATES
reflection should show here.
In Wall street, of course, the first SEN
sation capers. All Of q sudden 1t Is dis
closed-with European investors at the
first evidence of actual trouble hurrying
that only one group of stocks and bonds
in the whole world has imme date, nor
NAL market-the market for American
issues. They forthwith throw over vast
stead of panic quotations.. they find bids
firm, and absorption disposition I'M
swerved.
2ush to america.
1t is beyond the power Of even great
International banking houses to calculate
the extent to which panic-stricken Eu-
rope rushed American holdings into liz
auidation-but one thing that is known
is that single vessel reaching here from
Germany this week has brought for de-
livery approximately $4O.OO0.OO0 of stocks,
out of Berlin and Frankfort strong boxes.
unloading avalanche has not been known
ever before in our stock exchange his
tory. The days of 1898 were relatively
inconsequentiail in SO far as this one fea-
ture of European selling is concerned
Yet even now, at the end of such stu
pendous unloading. the quotations for
our stocks are from five to twenty points
higher than ruled this time last year.
Where ordinarily panic might have been
apprehended, the record shows cour-
age, confidence, capacity-a ready mar
ket here to accept challenge from any,
where, market able to Withstand
assault, however savage.
Finally politics begins to command a
Wall street audience. Half a dozen spe-
cial reasons there are for this. One that
1t is traditional-a presidential election
contest always being in a debative way
worth while speculatively. but the pres
emit political development is different
from what has ever hitherto shown: the
whoever wins. bad times are bound
forthwith to follow. The oracles pro-
claim Ike this: Wilson's election means
tariff destruction-a panic: Roosevelt's
election means Standard Oil pursuit-a
panic; Taft's election means an antagon-
ist:c Congress-a panic.
OF course. not a sane human being has
patience with such representations-en-
titled to be classified with dear old Bill
Nye's observation that he had once
heard that Wagner's music was really
better than 1t sounded
Political Activity Not Ignored.
But politics. political programing, is
not intelligently ignored when it has at
tendant activity of aggressive sort. And
this review is warranted in making the
statement that within a few recent days
there have lined UP in stock exchange
offices important financial interests whose
purpose 1t is to sell stocks largely and
continuously. Free from politics, careless
of politics, this review records the fact
too. that men Of premier Importance in
uHdHCC are COIIlIultIcO 10 the depression
side They affect to believe that very
low prices are u timately to be recorded:
that we are at the start of a bear cam
paign; that sensible folks are going to
sell: that this Is a time to unload: that
We are in for period Of investment dis
tress. This view is only now publicly
disclosed. It has been operative a long
time. Nothing unusual in this. Modern
finance never hands to the public any
thing but a postscript.
TT fS no
usual-for financial writer's to make state
ments uncomfortable. Facts they
know, facts they chronicle, are frequently
-usually-almost uniformly-facts not
subject to proof. So in ordinary estimate
dispute might be urged against the state
ments foregoing. Wherefore, let's get to
the buff. 1t is possible to quote attesta-
tons. For the present purpose a single
Boies Penrose Of Pennsylvania He has
been in New York. in Wall street. this
week Always alert, he is busy. He
visits his bankers and brokers. He dis
cusses the general situation. He is oracu-
Taft is to be elected; or it may be MI
Wilson; as he cynically smiles-even Mr.
Roosevelt. All this. however, is specula-
tion-aal is guesswork. hope-and some
other things. Only Of one thing is r.
Senator Boies Penrose certain: And this
certain one thing is that folks who have
stocks and do not sell them are folks
likely to be sorry not far in the future
Mr.. Senator Boies Penrose Of the Finan-
cial Reform League is particularly GER
tain that the copper stocAs ought to be
sold.
Condition as to Copper.
Now. as to copper: For weeks past. for
months, Wall street has been over
whelmed with Rotations about the tre-
mendous profits of the copper-producing
figures we are making-the price Of cop
per metal rising to figures not for long
time approached. It is questionable to
doubt that any copper stock is not going
70 double its market quotation. What
the takers ignore is that most of the
copper stocks are and have for long
time past been selling upon the basis
Of prospects. Amalgamated stock. for
example, was rushed up around par on
the representation that it was about to
become a 10 per cent stock. Perhaps
half the present stockholders bought the
stuff on that theory.
Aside, however. from every political