The Washington herald., 1914-02-20
STOCK MARKET
: Changes Slight
Prices on Wall Street Close at
Practically Figures of
Wednesday.
BOND SALES DECREASED
Washington Women Own Majority of
Stock in Gas and Railway
. Companies.
BOND SALES DECREASED
BY w. sTEALEY.

BY w. sTEALEY.
Prices on the New York Stock Ex
change eased off yesterday, but gain
early in the day closed the market a
figures practically similar to those O
Wednesday. The undertone was firm.
High prices for the day were made a
the opening. General Motors rose g.
and reacted 3 IA. Ice was a strong spe
Cialty on reports of the harvesting of
good crop, while Rubber was advance,
apparently on the weather. Beet Suga
lost over a point on bad reports.
There were few factors of importance
ia the speculative situation. Steel, Read
ing, and Chesapeake and Ohio gainet
fractionaliy. Mexican Petroleum. Balti
more and Ohio. and Copper lost
While the bond market appears to b.
somewhat ''off edge" prominent invest
ment houses do not believe that invest
ment buying has been exhausted by an!
means. A representative of one hous,
expressed the opinion that after tw,
months of activity the lulI is natural
He said, however, that there is still al
excellent demand for high-grade issues
: and he believes that the new offerings
some of which have reacted from the
high prices. will recover their loss and
perhaps advance to a higher level.
January was an unusually active
month for bond investments.
Local stock Market
Trading in the Washington Stock Ex-
change yesterday extended over a wider
range. Sixty shares of Railway pre-
ferred sold S7aS7 IA. Five hundred
shares were offered at 81. Later this was
, withdrawn and SO asked. One hundred
ana thirty-eight shares of the common
sock sold sat IS.
Fourteen shares of Capital Traction
stock sold at ito Twenty shares OF
Washington Gas sold at 81. one share al
81 Ia Lanton. twenty shares. brought
s. 81
brought l9G. twenty shares of East
Washington Savings Il.
Bond trading was light Washington
Gas rs bringing l07 3-S, Capital Traction
- IgN IA.
Reduction of Capital.
Several banks throughout the country
ar" reducing their capital and surplus.
which will nc one of the first effects of
the New currency system. They are.
however. banks of large capitalization
and similar condition docs not confront
banks here. where capitalization does
not exceed SI.GJO.OeC
Banks which have a constantly matur-
- line Of "ommerciaI--rcdits. under the
2 ~-disCuUnt facilities that will be offered
a. tn" Federal reserve hank. can take
= certain amount of its paper falling due
q an carly dat" to the regional bank
Nnd turn them into cash when dema nds
from tho money market are pressing
This will be particularly advantageous
Tor supp"sing the bank rate at the Fed
"ral institution is per cent. the bank
"an loan out part of its liqUidated as
.'Cts in the open market and profit by
tn" probably higher rate ruling there.
or course. reduction OF capital means
a smaller subscription to the capital of
thc Federal reserve bank.
There is considerable interest m tba
definition OF commercial paper An ex-
trCmely limited amount of doubJe-naned
paper Is now being carried i'm the port
fo!iLs OF national banks Differences of
opinion exist Cven between the most ex-
perlenced bank rs and nOtebrOkers re-
garding the most suitable character of
the new commercial paper that will be
redisCOunted for the banks by the board
Some leading bankers are in favor of
tWo-named paper. while others believe
that approximately the existing descrip-
ton Of commercial aper would be fairly
satisfactory. BY far the largest proper
been handled for years is single-named
material Ii is realized that sudden or
drastic changes in the character of the
material to be dealt in under the new
financial system might be attended by
mercantile disaster
Local Women Capitalists
An analysis Of the Washington Rail
way and Electric and Gas companies re-
ports show that over one-half the stock
holders in both companies are women.
WASHINGTON RAILWAY AND ELECTRIC.
isle I:ll. 1872 1915.
Total stocA"cdcr,....... =. Is5 Ig5s Is9s 2o73
W-meu siockh.5idor-........ aT i0g IOH Ise
STAR. hsId by Taa,n... .257s @ig s5Sss So;
WASHINGTON GAS LIGHT co
1910. 1911. 1917 1913.
r.'a! s.ocsholi =. -..--.-. i.ls 1.2s. $50 Iis2
~na.e> heId ny uDmsu 60 es5 el.sis erss5 ei.SG
{. a q. Traffic Increase.
Daring December 1913. Chesapeake ani
ohio hauled l.439,04S tons of coal and 50
~ tons of coke. which compares with
i.1ts.o4 tons OF coal and 23,54i tons of
coke hauled December a year ago.
For the six months ended December 81
1873 the road hauled a total of 9l2S,S,5
tons of coal and 1SO.991 tons of coke AZ
compared with Sl01,e0S tons OF coal anu !
,925 tons of coke for the correspond /
ing preceding period.
National R.nI< Earnings.
According {" 4 statement prepared by
he United States Investor the earnings
n national banks Of Washington be- ;
ween February /. last year. and Jam ,
nary l.. Of tine present year, were d. !
cded as follow:
Riggs. Slo.505; Columbia. 100; Com /
nercial, sI5,3Os; Farmers and Mechanics.
Sis: Lincoln, saS2iS; Capital, slg.6 se, !
Metropolitan. sS5.3j9: American. s5l 0s1.
md National Baut Of Washington,
so, CO.
+ !
The last lecture on Sales and Bali
neats" before the Washington Chapter
American Institute of Banking. was held
asst night. The Washington Chapter
lives its banquet tomorrow night
Mergenthaler has declared the regular
10 per cent quarterly dividend and an
xtra dividend of l-2 per cent. payable
Iarch 81 to stockholders of record
1arch ..
Lewis Johnson Co. cave issued a
of 900 pages oil the income tax
I is the most complete yet compiled,
Internal Revenue Bureau ruI-
lgs TO February L.