The Washington herald., 1916-08-22
new HIGH FOR
STEEL common
Stock Closes at 95-Trading
Active on Stree" The
Whole List Buoyant.
CBy the International News Service,

CBy the International News SerVice.)
New York, Aug. 21.-United States steel
common stock closed today at 80, which
is the highest price at which it ever
sold other high records were made,
notably in both the mine issues, in Pa
c!hc Mail and Atlantic Gulf and West
Indies. Counting the stock not reported
Wall Street dealt in fully a million shares
today. The whole list was buoyant.
Reasons for the behavior of the mar
kst are well known to readers of this
column. In a general way 1t may be
said that the market is rising because
nearly all the industrials are earning
at the rate of from . to 60 per cent or
their market price. because growing be-
lief in a long war has convinced Wall
Street these earnings will continue for
several years and because the plight of
the railroads is keeping all the specula-
tive money in the industrial list
The public is absent except for the
small fringe that always hangs around
Wall Street The big public that is going
to take the bit into its teeth presently
and run away with the market is stay
ing away till prices are higher. The
American speCulator and the American
investor is a proud and naughty indi-
vidual and will have no cheap stocks in
his strong box.
1t was in 1873 that Steel sold at 81 SIS.
which was the highest price until to-
day. From that price it fell down in
the thirtles and the present advance
began in the thirtles Steel is the great
investment issue of the world and It
shames the wild mining stocks by per-
forming more antics on the Wall Street
ladder than any Of them. Because 1t Is
so immensely valuable intrinsically 1t is
able to keep its reputation and now the
whole market is glad to follow Steel,
10
list. Measured by current earnings it is
extremely cheap from a speculative point
OF view. and measured by actual money
put back into the business II is selling
materially under its intrinsic value.
What appealed to high finance today
particularly was the remarkable action
of President Wilson in the labor dis
putes- Wall Street. which two months
ago thought there was no possible
chance of his reelection. is beginning to
say he is playing politics, or perhaps it
is craftsmanship. so well that he really
may be elected. The Hughes campaign
Is disappointing the Street. This is i'm
portant TO the speculator and to the in
vestor because it means that the busi-
ness world is losing its fear of the ad-
mlnistra ton, and very largely because
the administration Is showing a dtsposi-
ton to give business a square deal. The
result is that the election is not likely
to interfere with the big program mapped
out by Wall Street for fall and winter.
What was done In Wall Street today
is all the more remarkable because 1t
was done in the face of a sharp rise
of wheat to new high records. The disas-
ter In the wheat fields in the North west
and Canada is greater even than was
reported by the United States Govern
m mt on August : for the bad conditions
there reported have continued. The ca
iamity has lost its influence from stock
market point Of view because OF the
great carry-over from the previous and
because Of the high prices.