Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-07-25
NEW YORK CANDLES
IN THE WAR STOCKS
Great South Sea Bubble Was
Piker's Proposition Com
pared With Present.
SCORES OF MEN SHOW UP
WITH immense DEALS"
0nlooker Offers 5000 Trenches for
Sale and Is Seized Upon
at Once.
BY N. o. MESSENGER.

NEW YORK, duly 24.-The great
South sea bubble of ancient history, as
gambling mania affecting a whole
people, was piker's proposition COM
pared with the wave of speculation in
war materials which is engulflng this
city. OF course. somebody is going
broke in the end, and equally. of
course, the victims will be the poor
foolish fellow with a few dollars who
thought he could chip in on a game
being played by experts.
In the meantime. though, the experts
and the novices are piling up amazing
profits.
The novices' profits will be on paper
when the crash comes. and the other
fellows profits will have been convert
ed into some good bonds.
Just as a looker-on, and not having
the price to buy one white chip, l have
been intensely interested by this most
remarkable spectacle. Honestly, the
town seems to have suddenly gone
plumb crazy on specializing in war ma
terials The most marvellous stories
of Incredible profits are told and be-
lieved, and Immediately stocks jump
by leaps and bounds to levels ap-
parently impossible.
Men With Immense Deals.
But 1t is not only the organized cor
porations that participate in this Vlo-
lent frenzy of speculation: individuals
also have been bitten by the bug. In
the most notable hotels, where west
ern and southern people put up, you
can find scores of men with immense
deals on hand for the sale of Missouri
mules, Kansas corn, Pittsburgh steel,
Iowa hogs. Georgia cotton and good
ness knows what else.
After listening to some of these Won
derful propositions until my poor hnan-
cial understanding was almost distract
ed. 1 suddenly thought l would break
into the game, and suggested that
had 81, 900 trenches for sale and would
my hearer like to find a purchaser and
break hfty-1fty. Sure, he would; how
much were trenches quoted at and
where were they?
A Case in Point.
Truly, though, that is not an exag
geration when one contemplates what
Is actually going on. Here is one case
that occurred today. 1t is the story OF
a company that Is interested in build
ing a certain type of submarine boats.
This morning the news tickers carried
the information that the company had
fallen into the hands of great capital
lists, who were to build all the subma-
rine boats to be required in future. In
. little while the stock had advanced
to $3.50 a share. when a few months ago
IL was offered for less than SO.
Here is another case, of a certain
steel company out Pittsburgh way.
whose stock was Quotea commercially
at about $11. Somebody started the
story that the company had war con-
tracts Of $150.000.000, and although the
president of the company came out in
a statement and declared that there
was not so much money in the world, |
80 far as he knew. they would have IT
otherwise, and last week the public !,
traded in 100000 shares. when there are |
not but 100000 all told, and they thus |
put the price up to $50.
It's wonderful, and, moreover, a lot |
of them are getting away with it, be- |
cause real money passes in these sky |
rocketing processes to a certain extent. |
Naturally, every skyrocket has a stick |
that must come down some time but at |
present one cannot see anything but |,
the rockets.
II you can dig up those $4,000
trenches, come on over with them, and
IN the boil weevil alley of some big
uptown hotel we can ind q purchaser
for them and split the profits Nifty
fifty.