New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-05-19

1t is related that three blind men.
coming unexpectedly upon an ele-
phant, fell to quarrelling as to what
II was. One grasped leg, and de-
clared 1T was tree; the second
seized its tail, and stoutly main
tanned that it was only stick. and
the third, feeling its trunk, as
serted it was snake. Wall Street
observers are like the blind men and
the elephant in that they are hope
lessly at variance as to the causes of
the splurge in the stock market. One
maintains that it is victory" mar
ket; another that people all at once
discovered that prices and values
were out Of line, and promptly be-
gan to 'rectify the discrepancy by
buying stocks; and still another that
the market was Engineered" by big
interests for reasons undisclosed.
but presumably for the purpose of
unloading stocks at higher prices,
only to .repurchase them at lower
levels later on.
Which of these opinions, if any, is
the right one. we do not pretend to
know; but it may be that all the
things mentioned played part in
the rapid creation of speculative
position larger than any existing
since the process of market defation
began toward the end of 1916. Prob
ably the movement had it's inception
IN concerted buying by important
financial interests; certainly it was
no spontaneous development. 1t is
regarded as significant that the
banks, which had been restricting
stock loans, for some reason appar-
emily threw off restrictions and let
the market have all the money it
needed. And when that happened
the market was in a position where
comparatively little real buying
exerted a controlling influence on
prices, owing to the remarkably
strong technical position that had
been built up. Once started, the
victory" idea no doubt helped ma
terially in giving the movement fur
Their impetus, and it, is also certain
that realization that values were out
of line with prices contributed to
the advances in some cases. These
factors, however, in the main were
responsible only for the initial i'm
pulses of what appeared in the be-
ginning to be a moderate and we'll
justified advance, but which expand
ed with incredible swiftness into an
orgy Of speculation The thing was
carried to absurd lengths until
Thursday. Stocks were put up rap
idly, under pool operations, on the
widest rumors. One issue advanced
Is points on reports of a merger
that were quickly denied, and held
nearly half of the gain. Another
made an advance nearly as sensa-
tional for no particular reason other
than that traders were willing to
buy anything that showed signs of
moving. And some issues that
might have consistently enjoyed an
advance on real merit We're almost
neglected.
The rise in the last three weeks
has brought the average of thirty
representative industrial stocks up
to within five points of the, level at
which it stood a year ago. That is
a remarkable recovery when it is
considered that meanwhile all the
corporations have been subjected to
enormous tax levies, and many of
them to price fixing and other regu7
lations undreamed Of when we en-
tered the war. The extent of the
gains from the low prices of. 1917
and from the prices prevailing on
April 81 are shown in the following
table: az