Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-13
VALUES HOLD IN
DOWNWARD TREND
Prices Undergo Little Serious
Change Despite Weeks
Depressing influences.
UTILITIES MARKETS
OFFER OBJECT LESSON
Millions Taken From the Credulous
Horde Who Quit Wall Street.
Railway Strike Comment.

Railway Strike Comment.
BY w. g. NICHOLAS.
Special Correspondence of The Star.
NEW YORK, July 1.-THE stock. mar
kets have not developed startlingIy in
teresting features. although the situation
is loaded with explosive possibilities
a troubled financial outlook moderate in
dustrial and commercial recession, crops
still an unsettled question, although of
fairly satisfactory promise: threatened
railroad strike of magnitude, continued
uneasiness in foreign money markets, po-
litical agitation at Washington and else
where and progressive liquidation OF pub
lie utilities companies. Values have not
undergone serious change. although a
downward tendency was the ruling force.
most of the time. Considerable invest
ment absorption of stocks by the small
people is reported by the general run of
brokerage houses. Low prices are at
tractive, from an interest standpoint.
The recent so-called sporadic finan-
! cial explosion in Pittsburgh calls atten-
| ton unpleasantly to the possibility of an
| expansion of that class of disaster to
other cities. When the public began to
desert the New York stock exchange a
couple of years ago 1t turned its atten-
| ton to public utilities and oil stocks, and
| widespread speculation sprang up in
them. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincin-
natl, Louisville, Cleveland, Chicago. De-
troit, Milwaukee, St Louis and several
cities Of lesser Importance became hot
beds of undisciplined speculations in the
shares and bonds of newly organized
companies.
Prices were doomed all along the line.
Underwriting combinations. acting with
the friendly cooperation and Oftentimes
actual backing of banks and trust COM
panies, lent force and confidence to the
campaign and contributed to the activity
of the freshly discovered get-rich-quick
enterprises. Excitement ere long degen-
Grated into frenzy In many communities.
Millions upon millions of dollars of
foolish money were invested in rainbow
securities by . cfedulous horde of men
and women throughout. the length and
breadth of the land AZ prices advanced
the excitement increased and the volume
certificates assumed appalling proper
tons. Hundreds of millions of good
wilr' and expectations" sold at fancy
figures. The public, which had quit the
treatment, went from bad to worse. 1t is
paying the fiddler.
Terrific Liquidation.
The utilities market finally began to
topple. and for several weeks there has
been terrific liquidation of wind-blown
creations called by courtesy Stocks In
every city in the country underwriters
and brokers laid down on the banks, mar
gins and partial payments went into
the flames. The 'smartest among the
insiders, those who had sold at outside
quotations, kept their money; others play
ed back profits in an Intellectual attempt
to sustain grossly artificial market. The
collapse has been general Every COM
munity has suffered punishment. Failures
have been many and fresh ones nil the
records of each successive day. -
At first they were belittled by the lame
explanation that they were sporadic,
and Of no general Importance That pre-
tense is being abandoned, and now the
fear is openly expressed that we are on
the eve OF a wholesale Tor Is 1t whole
some) 'housecleaning' small in individ-
ual losses. but monumental In the aggre-
gate. 1t has become heArish factor Of
Importance in the stock market. 1t is be-
ing felt In half the banks west Of the
Delaware river. and finds sympathetic
response in New York and New England
Possibly the experience will be eventual
ly beneficial to legitimate stocks-sanity
may some time be restored.
Down to the present writing the street
has been strangely Indifferent to the
chances of a great strike that might
blockade the railroads east Of the Missis-
sippi and tie UP passenger and freight
traffic tight as wedge The mob i'm
preston Is that the $4,000 threatening
workmen may win out So far as can be
observed the railroad management feel
much the same way. and though they ap-
pear to anticipate setback. they are
seemingly reconciled. The deep down
hope is that the fight and its result will
be an object lesson, profound In effect on
popular opinion. The big railroad men
are genuinely mixed In mind whether to
fight a strike to finish and give the
public an example OF real labor tyranny
fiscation OF earnings.
Which would be best is an open ques-
| ton, even at this eleventh hour. and
great variety of opinion is quietly voiced
by leading financiers and men OF affairs
who are identified with the financial
management of the nations transporta-
| ton interests. The points Of doubt and
! risk are as clearly understood by the
workmen as by the arrangements, and in
| formation comes from reliable sources
/ that IL they could have acted free-handed
| the wage issue would not have been
| pressed at this juncture. 1t would seem
| that the labor union religion to stick to
| the leaders outweighs every other con-
| sideratiOn. The situation is hourly be-
coming more interesting and may be
the ruling feature of the stock market
next week-and many subsequent weeks.
Many Street Leaders Away.
| The street is almost barren Of financial
leviathans. Those who remain In their
| city or suburban homes keep very quiet
and do nothing in the stock market to at
tract notice or influence prices apprecia-
bly,. John ID. Rockefeller takes an occa
slonai little run out of town. but he finds
| his greatest happiness in the seciuson of
ms wonderful palace near Tarrytown,
| forty minutes ride up the Hudson by au-
tomobile. He has just celebrated his sew
enty-fourth birthday. He is the largest
holder OF American securities, but if he
speculates nobody knows it. He is sup
posed to have made not less than $780,
oOOOO in oil since the oil trust was put
! through a farcical dissolution under gov
eminent direction.
There is now ill-natured talk Of trying
to nullify the deal on the ground that the
| actual ownership and management re-
mains az before. Mr.. Rockefeller moves
along serenely under the storm clouds,
seemingly unconscious that anything has
Deem done or may be done out Of the or
binary. George w. Perkins slipped off to
Europe ten days ago ''unbeknownst' to
the alert marine reporters OF the city
press and to the public His disembarka-
ton on the other side was also rubber