New Britain herald., 1916-12-15
PRICES DWINDLE IN
 RUSH TO L|QUIDATE
Peace Scare Brings Heavy Selling
 to Wall Street

New York, Dec. 15-Finance has been seized with a premonition of peace This Is very significant.
 Wall Street, like every other finan- clal community, is furnished with marVellously delicate organ, a kind of antenna, by which to sense the ap- proach of events. That organ yester- day was in state of intense activity. The sensations thereby received al- though definitely understood, were mostly inaudble. However, there was one phrase heard over and over, ten thousand times, on the floor of the stock exchange, in private bank of hces, Tn the customers rooms of brokers shops and even in the street. ways. It was:
 This is the beginning of the end" The stock market broke very badly under the impulse of people to get out of their war stocks
 Leap First, Then Look. Tuesdays decline, on the news of Germany's proposal to discuss peace, was the result of an unexpected 1 shock. It is the habit of spectators, 1 when scared first to leap and then to i look.
 On Wednesday prices recovered, 1 but in a somewhat uncertain manner. 1 sensations imparted by the antenna
 were confused and contradictory. A majority of people wished to be
 treasured, and the prevailing opinion 1 was that the Allies would refuse to 1 consider any terms Germany might be l expected to offer.
 l Yesterdays decline on the stock ex- change was ia different character.
 It represented a resumption of Tues
 days liquidation on the crystallizing g
 thought of the imminent possibility of 1 peace, and whereas on Tuesday vola- T tile spectators were the principal sell
 lers, securities were offered for sale l yesterday by all manner of people
 insiders and outsiders, big and little. Bankers who on Wednesday were
 contemptuous of Germanys overture, 1 and certain that the Allies could not
 stop changed their attitude and con-
 sidered alternatives.
 Rush to Liquidate.
 On Wedn esday reassurances con-
 sisted mainly in the assertion that the
 war would not end merely because
 Germany had proposed to discuss
 peace. Yesterday reassurances took
 a different turn. If the war did end
 that was no reason why people rush l headlong to dispose of their securi-
 ties
 Nevertheless, people did rush head l long to get out their war stocks 1 Twenty minutes after the close of the
 market the ticker stopped grinding
 out the record of 2,5OO,000 shares
 sold on steeply declining prices. Beyond the scenes of commotlon 1 produced by the days stock exchange liquidation sat finance itself--quiet, l expectant and holding it's breath. It's mind was turned toward Washin gtOn. 1 The relation of the beginning to the 1 end would be determined there by the 1 president.
 Playing nervously in that direction, ] the antenna seemed to sense the l probability that the American gov- 1 ernment would, in transmitting the l German proposal to the Allies, cast l the whole of it's moral weight on the 1 side of peace. This belief was sup l ported by phrase received from an 1 officer of the government who hap l pened to be in Wall Street attending to matters of finance. He said: This l is the entering wedge" So Wall l Street thinks