The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-08

MANUEL UNTERMYER of New YORK has written letter de- 0 ploring the present craze for war stocks, and predicting that the public will suffer in the long run from the rapid upbidding of prices in the stock market.
 This is the letter:
 October 2. 1915.
 Episcopal Church, 131 West 104th Street.
 New York City:
 My Dear Sir: I ougSt, perhaps. to pre- face my answer to your inquiries by ex- blaming that I have never bought stocks on margin or credit, and have never been concerned in a short sale. or specu- lated in the stock market But as an in vestor and a lawyer who for upward of 35 years has been intimately connected with the affairs of corporations, and who is familiar with the machinery of the stock exchange, I have no hesitation in answering your first question by saying that it is worse than hopeless for lEe average man to expect to amass a for tune or to make money by dealing in the stock market. My experience is that in the end they all lose. They do not lose all the time, but they do lose all in time.
 My advice to you is to urge them to keep as far away as possible from the contagion of speculation, and especially to warn them against the present fever of speculation, and at no time to buy stoc,Sa except to the extent to which they can pay for them in full as an investment and then only after thorough investiga- tion of the merits of the property based on normal conditions.
 Above all things advise that in mak- ing their investments they keep away from the so-called (and Tn most instances nliscalled) war stocks most of which are selling at greatly inflated prices based on temporary conditions. which are exag- gerated and accelerated by pool manipu- lations and other forms of artificial ac- tivity. In some of the mos. prominent instances the present prices reflect, in my judgment, besides these conditions, a fey er:sh wave of wild and senseless spec ulation that has seized the general pub lie, spreading like wild fire from ocean to ocean, and for which the public will, as usual, pay dearly in .he end
 Like all such movements, it finds 8 semhlance of Justification sufficient to fire the imaginations of the novices and visionaries who are always easily sepa- rated from their hard-earned. money by the bait of easy money, in exaggerated tales O. the floods of new business ir.volv. ing abnormal profits that are likely to end as unexpectedly as they began. Stocks that represent nothing beyond that have been rightly regarded as little more than wa ste paper, have been suddenly gAivan- ized into life with the aid of cunninSls devised and widely advertised rlImors ant half truths from unknown quarters and unioaIed in teams upon the unfortunat' public.
 .Never in the history of the stock ex change has the public been threatened by so dangerous a pitfall as that which fl now open wide for it's victtrls. Tke stocks of few companies with genuine mcri l that were selling far below their actua vc iues led the way and made !cssihls this wild orgy of gambling ill market that has lost all sense of real values The whole matter would be iudicrous t. thinking men if it were not SD tragic is l it's consequences
 Tn answer to your inquiry. should ga! that much csn and ought to be done t