The Washington herald., 1914-12-12

the standard bonds that have always
been known in the market-place. but In
the quiet. unlisted securities which haya
always been bought and sold purely as
investment Issues. That was, perhaps, q
natural development out Of the circum-
stances, but II was about the last thing
looked for by the critics, or, in fact, By
the dealers themselves.
The psychology Of the investor is q
curious psychology. One observes always
that men who live in New York, Boston,
Philadelphia. Chicago or st. Louis seem
to like best OF all. in normal times, the
standard listed bonds with an active mar
ket. II you pin them down to facts you
find that the large majority Of them have
never in their lives availed themselves OF
that market and sold bonds. or even
used them to- borrow money on. Never
theless. they are perfectly willing to pay
a much higher price for bonds that ars
quoted all the time than for bonds of
equal security that are not quoted
When. therefore, one comes in contact
with investors in smaller cities and more
particularly in what is loosely called the
country. II is discovered that the value
placed upon these daily quotations Is in
almost direct ratio to the size Of the town
in which the investor lives and reaches
the vanishing point when one comes to
the real country investor. who generally
d a
secured by a direct first mortgage. the
money value of which he will not know
at any time during its lifetime
II is, OF course, not wise to make
sweeping deductions from phenomenon
like the strong demand for quiet securi-
ties II one is dealer in this class Of
securities and makes a great deal of
money by buying and selling them. it Is
easy and il is comfortable to draw the
conclusion that from this time onward
the investors of the United States are
going to prefer quiet public utility bonds
to the standard bOEdS OF the good rail-
road systems and the great municipaI-
ties. The argument. no doubt. will ap-
pear in many forms in the literature OF
such dealers. OF course, it IS not a very
sound argument. because the premises
upon which il is founded arc a phenome-
non that has been, so far. OF short du-
ration and that Itself was caused by sN-
traordInary conditions. In all probability
the markets OF the world will hardly
again be in a normal condition before =
great many Of the people who now arr
willing to entertain the idea Of buying
very quiet bonds and stocks will again
come back to their old fields ard want
their daily quotations. Possibly many OF
them. in fact. will he dissatisfied with
what they have bought during the period
OF suspended quotations and will seek.
quite unreasonably. as free a market in
the quiet bonds as they have in the past
enjoyed in the others.
There is however. some good sense to
he deduced from the facts in the case.
II is n fact, FOR instance. that people
who during this period Of disturbance
and distress have held perfectly good
quiet securities upon which they never
expected to get a quotation have enjoyed
greater peace of mind and have been
less disturbed than men and women
whose fortunes were involved in the mar
kets. That is something to think about.
II raises the valid question whether in
making investments a great many peo-
pie did not pay lot for something that
they never can use or never do use
namely. the quick COnvertibility OF the
bond market. II raises another ques-
tion-whether the true investor. who puts
his money away for safety and for 4
reasonable income Is not, after all. the
wiser man of the two These are not
questions that can be settled offhand by
deductions drawn from the present con-
ditiOns. but il appears obvious enough
that the experience OF this year has at
least lent further color to the theory Of
safety and income as against safety and
COuyPTtibility