New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-31

and mad advanced their discount ralCa.
Lo.se- .uled greatest ~ Reading. IN
which there had been no short interest
worth speaking o.; in Canadian Pa
citc. which was lacking n friends. and
in some OF the never speclalucs a
condition which. in the opinion Of the
street. was 10 hc expected. - mar
hot such As yesterdays was no place N
which 10 sell uHscasoncd isrucs Of a
questionable value a. tho bost.
Reading Under Pressure.
The losses by noon ranged from FIVE
10 seven points in the leading shares,
with Reading At all times under press
IRE. Here the absence OF the some
times much abused short interest was
in evidence. II has long been consid-
cred rather dangerous. If not exactly
bad form. 20 he short Of Reading. as
many a trader. professional and room,
has found TO his sorrow. SO when real
stock began 70 come out IN big vol
umcs. Following the heavy sales Of the
preceding days, II lacked the support
OF prolt-taking shorts.
Steel. under even greater pressure
than anything else on The list, pre-
scented the other side Of tho shield.
The best opinion in the Street is that
the short interest in Steel at the close
OF business on Monday was not far
from l500.0 shares. This, with such
little banking support as it was
thought advisable 10 render. held the
stock much stead'er than others not
50 fortunately situated.
After noon the cables began bringing
more serious news than even the morn
ing had developed. At times there
seemed 10 be an utter absence OF the
support that had characterized the
trading earlier in the day II was ap-
parent that the market was beng al
lowed 10 take It's own course. so long
rs i did not become demoraliZed.
To have attempted to hold prices IN
the face Of the food Of ofcrings would
have invited disaster 10 any group at
tempting il. The Standard OIL Sroup
had previously announced that all who
wanted money could have IL from their
brokers 81 the ruling market rate, but
spocialitics of this group, such a
Amalgamatcd, which went down seven
points before | o'clock, suffered with
the rest. Approximately l,ooo.0oo
shares had then been traded IN.
As 2:10 o'clock. the time for settling
balances. approached. there was some
nounced. None developed, and every
sheet went through the Clearing House
without trouble. Further heavy sell
ing about this time reflected. il was
thought. the calling Of loans By some
Of the banks and inability Of small
spectators to keen their margins good.
Selling Begins Afresh.
Whatever the cause. the announce
ment that Germany had submitted an
ultmatum 70 Russia was the signal for
fresh selling Brokers then gave an
exhibition Of frenzied finance. The
floor was ono swiring. bowling crowd
Of perspiring members. Brokers and
messengers ran here and there. while
the electric call board on which the
numbers Of members wanted at their
telephones are displayed flashed like a
set piece al Fourth of July cclebra
ton. At this timc the lowest prices OF
the day were reached and support was
corspicuously absent. ~ least one
half Of thc floor seemed anxious 20 sell
at any price.
1 IN the gallery an excited group
watched the transactions on the floor
/ below. Not all were strangers. Some
were veterans of big days dating back
10 the Northern Pacific corner and be-
yond. but they were as interested as
III tourists VINO were getting their
first glimpse Il the market IN action.
The visitors could make neither head
nor tail of the performance as they
described Il: the veterans said things
were holding we'll.
While they were saying II small
/ lad in n pages uniform mounted the
rostrum. where in the days when the
Stock Exchange paid chairman Slo.-
600 year for presiding over ITS ses-
sious that functionary dozod the day
away. Only thc visitors IN the gallery
SAW him: the floor was TOO busy. Nor
did he ,cc the floor Turning his back
- il. he placed ono hand OF an electric
push button End fixed his eyes on the
cioci At sharp 3 h" pressed the but
ton and the gong rang out, once twice
thrice and the crowd on the floor
was silent.
/ twas sly minutes later, however, be-
! fore ;hc watchers ~ the tickcrs saw
tho closing prices. ihc market having
/ outstrpped the machine again. Thcn
IN. tape showed clearly that IN INC
, Last few minutes there were some
frcnz.ed attcinpts u, covering. stocks
had Jumped d. point between sales OF
100 marc lots.
II was not the cnd of the day. how
over. for the Once force or the brok-
ers. IN the exchange itself there were
numerous conferences, and the calls Tor
moro margin wcrc lnslstcnt and many.
A. rule. the broker reported that
r..porscs were better than might have
been expected.