The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-07-06
Chronic Gossipers in Wall Street
Are Put Under Ban by Ex-
change Officials.
UNPRECEDENTED IN STREET
While Not Completely Checked the
Tendency Is Toward SURPRISING
Wild Stories That Might Be
Harmful.

and varied changes in Wall street
ways. The adjustment of the financial
district and it's army of workers to
the new order of things ushered in
by the entrance of the United States
into the war has gone ahead steadily
and is still progressing. The process
will go on until peace comes and per-
haps thereafter. Banks, foreign ex-
change, the security and commodity
markets, have all felt the hand of the
war god in varying degree, and the
changes that have taken place in bust
ness methods and customs In the
street would surprise the Wall street
frequenter of five or ten years ago.
Probably mi of the most interest
ing developments in the financial dis
trict since our entrance into the war
has been the attempt made by the
market authorities to put the ban on
the rumor-monger. In normal times
the most gossipy place in the
try is to be found right In the finan-
cial district where a rumor is born
every minute. Millions of dollars
have been made and lost in Wall
street on the circulation of rumors.
There have been times when wild
stories were deliberately concocted for
stock market purposes.
Unprecedented on Street.
Dame Rumor lately, however, has
been taken in hand by the officials of
the New York stock exchange and
the New York cotton exchange, and
while she is still to be found at large,
her activities have been much re-
stricted. On the stock exchange the
governors recently adopted resolu-
lions to the effect that "the circula-
ton in any manner Of rumors of q
sensational character by members of
the exchange or their firms will be
deemed an act detrimental to the in
terest and welfare of the exchange.
Similar resolutions were adopted by
the cotton exchange governing board
after there had occurred a tremendous
slump in cotton prices ascribed partly
to rumors set afloat that the govern
ment intended to fix the price of cot
ton. g
The effort being made to stop ru-
nor spreading is new and has never
been done before. 1t has been eff
fective to a degree, although it did
not prevent the flotation of a m
that the German crown prince and
10000 men had been captured by the
allies. This rumor started the rounds
shortly after the opening of the stock
market and later when it came back
to the exchange the total bag of Teu-
tons had reached $4,000.
Curiously enough during the recent
visitation of German submarines to
these shores the rumor factory was
comparatively idle, the only story
emanating from that quarter being a
rumor that six German submarines
were lying to off Atlantic City get
ting ready to lombard the resort.
Since the various exchanges banned
the dissemination of rumors their
point of origin has been carefully con-
cealed so that it is next to impossi-
BILE nowadays to run them down at
their source.
Curb on Wild Stories.
The German kaiser, who must
yield the palm only to the crown
prince in the number of times he has
been killed in this war, has been killed
on the stock exchange time and time
again since 1914. On other occasions
he has died a natural death from a
strange malady. There was a time
when the death of the kaiser meant
to Wall street the end of the war so
that rumors Of this character were
often put out with a view to influence
ing the course of market prices. But
since the exchange banned rumor-
mongering the kaiser has not been
KILLED onc in the financial district
In the markets of 1915 and 1916 re-
ports of war orders placed with in
dustrial companies filled Wall street
for months. Some of the rumors
proved to be true, whereas others
were made out of whole cloth. Peri
odically there came also rumors OF
peace proposals which on a number of
occasions eXerted an important in
fuence on stock market prices. The
most frequently appearing reports
J have been those of vessels sunk al
sea.
It would of course be too much to
say that the exchange authorities have
effectively checked rumors spreading
by their recent action, although un
doubtedly the tendency is TOWARD
81 1910 LL- -as-h
be harmful both to sentiment and tt
market values.