Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-23

TIME craze for speculation in the shares OF
J. companies having war orders has not yet
reached the stage of acute mania that char-
acterlzed the Dutch tulip boom In the l'th
century, but it is on the way. Manipulators
of the shares are busy and the innocent pub
lie thinking that the demand for shrapnel
will be permanent Is buying with the same
avidlty shown by the Dutch in the nth CEN
tury when they were convinced that the de-
mand for bulbs would never fail
The whole population of the Netherlands
devoted itself to tulip-raisng until they
flooded the market and the bottom went out
of it, and the people became sane once more
to live the rest of their lives in poverty 1t
took all the sound philosophy which they
could muster to make them content to live
at all. Some who were not philosophical
killed themselves.
At the height of the boom the bulbs were
sold by perlts, a weight of less than a grain,
as diamonds are sold by carats, and the
choicest varieties brought from IL to q forms
a perit The Admiral Liefken bulb was one
of the most highly priced, and one weighing
400 perits sold for 440O forms. Chder,
Weighing only LOG perits, brought 1915 florins
and q Semper Augustus, Of 200 perits, was
snapped up by an eager purchaser for $500
forms.
The stock brokers abandoned their regular
business and dealt in bulbs. Men sold their
houses for a song to invest the proceeds in
q towering plant and men who had no houses
saved their wages and invested in the new
lottery.
When they awoke from their dream tulip
bulbs were worth less than we now have to
pay in the seed stores on Market and Chest
nut streets and to say tulip to a Dutchman
was like calling London cabman a Bosch
In this year Of grace and grape and canister.
There were some compensations to the
world in this mania, however, for the tulip
was developed to a state of perfection never
before known, and it is now possible for
every lover of a garden to get for his early
summer delight the lneal descendants OF the
18th century bulbs that sold for more than
their weight in gold.
The men who have lately been paying 5000
for shares on which a dividend has never
been declared are likely to wake up in few
months TO find that they have not even the
consoling thought that their folly has ben
Gifted generations yet unborn. The slump is
bound to come when the war boom is over
and prices viii sink TO the level Of actual
values.
A Rise of 500 Per Cent.
The most notorious booming OF shares has
centred around company whose president
has succeeded in getting a large amount of
war business. On July 21 Of last year the
common stock Of the company was selling
for 4OA. It remained around that figure fer
many months and moved upward only a few
points at time until last spring, when the
announcement that a contract for many mil
lion dollars worth Of war supplies had been
signed was followed by feverish activity on
the stock exchanges Within less than a
fortnight the price OF the common stock
scared 10 15O or thereabouts. Then it slumped
10 about 120, only to boom again. Just year
from the date when It was selling for 4OX
with little demand. It was finding purchasers
at 2O4. or fve times as much.
The common stock OF another company
which was inactive year ago at As sold for
7Bh yesterday. This company Is supposed 10
have large war orders. but it's onicials have
been so retieent about their business that the
spectators have not yet been attracted TO
It's shares IN large numbers But the flies viii
gather about the honey II the war continues
and shares bought up now at comparatively
low prices win be unloaded on the guIlible
and eredulous For there are always people
anxious to buy at the top price. They are
like the self-supporting young woman who
heard that security which had been hover
ing around l05 for months had risen 10 i25
And now" said she Il have been count
ing up my cash with friend to see II We
| couldn't buy a share between usi"
Prudent Sell on Rising Market
Few men en,r got rich in that way Those
who saved themselves from the wreck of the
tulip mania unloaded their tulips a. the top
prices. They sold On a rising market ana
iet Who would hay. IL lhe sane Nay tins few
I who escaped aiaaates when John Laws AEIa-