The Washington herald., 1914-10-10
COMMERCE AND FINANCIAL

have come to regard it as a safe in
yestment security, and SO far as any
stock can be classed in that way
In spite of the common saying that
women are essentially speculative wom-
en- do not constitute any large percen-
taRe Of the stockholders OF the corpora
tions whose stock are speculatons' ana
the number OF women holders OF suSh
stocks increase normally only as the
investment feature predominates in such
issues. The large growth In the list OF
women stockholders in New Haven was
made during the time when this stock
was regarded as an investment ana
Drobably IL would be found that the
percentaEe of women stockholders has
declined since the first reduction in diVi-
dends.
One would imagine that with list OF
more than a million stockholders own
ing the stocks of our big industrials and
railroads, the markets at time OF great
disturbance uneasiness and uncertainty
like the present would lie under con-
stantly threatening cloud OF iquadatlon.
II would be natural to suspect that out
of a million people owning these STOCKS
a goodly percentage would be at least
asking questions about the market II
they were greatly disturbed and II ter
ror were widespread amongst them. The
question, therefore, how this multitude
of people is standing the strain resolves
Itself into an analysis of the volume of
stock that seems TO be looking ior
market
Curious as IL may seem, the efforts OF
the peopIe to find a market at the present
time for stocks are exceedingly small Vi
course they ask questions. but the usuaI
question is merely a question as to when
the markets are likely to be active again
and whether it will be possible in case OF
necessity to sell a part OF their hold-
ings. There has been little sign OF what
might be called frightened selling. The
American public views the disturbance
in Europe as apart from itself. and seems
to have made up its mind to sit tight and
/ hold 10 what Il owns until the storm
blows over, however long II may last ana
however severe it may be. The great
: majority Of the holders of these STOCKS
paid more for them than they are now
supposed to be worth in the markets and
this great majority sees on good reason
why it should think of taking Losses
| in securities in which it has faith.
Whether that is a correct attitude OF
mind or not remains to be seen; for GER
| tainly the facts seem to favor it and
there seems to be good reason TO believe
| that this courage and constancy in the
| face Of disturbance will prove TO be the
correct and profitable state Of mind un-
| der the present circumstances Under
meath this public state Of mind with re-
| gard to securities there lies standard
argument to the effect that it has been
| profitable for half a generation to hold
| good American securities when things
seemed unfavorable and to sell them
only WIN prosperity seemed to reach
high tide One will find in the mind
I of the average American stockholder
| that this idea is a maxim of investment,
and is in fact the guiding principle upon
which the American public has bought
so extensively and so widely into Amer
| lean securities.
| In all this comment no attempt has
been made to allow for the fact that a
good many of the people in the lists are
not Americans, but are foreign holders
| of these stocks. What the actual per-
| centage is ii would be impossible to es-
| innate In the case OF some of our cor
porations the figures are known, but
such cases are not. by any means, to be
taken as illustrating the whole list. In
the case Of the corporations cited above.
the American Telephone and Telegraph
has about $50 foreign stockholders
American Sugar Il and the Pennsylvania
1900. There is no record of the others.
| 1t may. OF course, be presumed that the
majority of the stockholders Of the Ca
madam Pacific are in Canada or in
Europe The number of foreign stock
holders of United States Steel 10 loosely
estimated at something over 10 per cent
Of the total list. It is probably a safe
| Assumption that Of the purely American
companies United States Steel and Penn
| sylvania have so far the largest per-
| centaee of foreign stockholders. This
is however. an assumption and is not
proved by actual statistics. To the ex-
tent that foreign holdings complicate the
situation, 1t becomes more and more diff
icult to guess the actual state Of mind
| Of this army of stockholders but com
petent critics have estimated that even
in the case of the foreign holdings only
a small percentage of the holders are
anxious to sell at present prices, or any
where near those prices.