The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-16
TRY TO DEPRESS
 LIBERTY BONDS
Fly HOLLAND


 change was brought HID short after en- deavoring to discover why and by whom .he market for the Liberty Bonds has oeen Tor sometime depressed. It seemed incredible that the credit of the United states government should have been so impaired, notwithstanding the heavy ex- penses and the great burden of taxation aoove 95 for Liberty Bonds fairly rep resentative of the depreciation in that ereolt- The managers of the stock ex- change Knew that the credit and re- sources of the United States are them serves sufficient to maintain the price of Liberty Bonds at par or above.
 A httie investigation served to convince the stock exchange managers that the depression in the price of Liberty Bonds was due exclusively to a systematic and well organized attempt to secure a result or that Kind. If therewere such an attempt It was presumably undertaken by those who nave not the interest of the United states at heart in this war. But who were they? Where did they sell the oonds? What New York agencies had made these transactions
 A further investigation made it clear that the New York banks or brokers vino Solu ponds while the price was depre- ciaeihg were not acting for themselves or Tor known customers of the banks or the brokers. They were. instead. doing no more than following instructions which came to them from their corres- ponfents in other parts of the country. Little or no evidence could be obtained. except in few isolated cases, of original attempts in New York city purposely to depress the price of the Liberty Bonds. It was, however, impracticable, really impossible, so to carry on an investiga- tion that it would reach banks and cor respondents in other parts of the country. Presumably these banks and correspon- aents were, in transactions of this kind, simply doing no more than to obey the instructions of customers. But to trace from New York city through banks in original sellers of these securities might be possible for the government itself, per- maps, but was not possible for the man. agement of the stock exchange of New York
 A SYSTEMATIC ATTACK
 : l to show that there did exist a secret and widespread propagandan, so to call it, well organized, thoroughly "camou- flaged," whose purpose was to impair the credit of the United States and to in- fluence citizens so that they could not be persuaded to by new issues of gov ernment bonds in the fear that, although | they paid 100 percent for bonds, they would find that the market for them nj niot tiy,or | In the financial district the impress l sion now prevails that it will be impos- | possible to affect to any appreciable ex- l tent, the market price of the new issue which is to bear four and one-quarter per cent interest, behind which is to | stand sinking fund and which is to be 1 redeemable in 10 years. As an investment proposition, it is tempting for those who i have money to invest, and even should there be temporary depreciation below par, the demand for bonds will soon put a stop to this even though there be con- 1 tinued the secret attempt to depreciate The movement has been one of the most insidous and from one point of view. dangerous, which has been undertaken by any of those who are antagonisti( to the efforts of the government ir these days of war.
 THE TIMBER AND THE SHIPS l It is not for lack of resources that delay has occurred in the construction o1 ships, if the reports that have made public are accurate. The resources arc plentiful and are very near convenient places for ship construction. That i. true of the timber resources of the north west. and it is also true of the south east There came to New York this morning from St. Louis well authorized statement in which 1t was set forth tha in East Texas there is yellow. pine ant hardwood timber as well as iron whicf can be made available for the construc ton of all the ships that may be needed
 for the war. The railroads are alst under the wise and what is now recog
 nizkd as adequate administration of Sec
 retary McAdoo, ready and well equipped to transport timber out of east Texas and iron obtained nearby to the ship
 yards upon the Gulf of Mexico.
 THE WONDERS OF OIL
 Just as reports are made public tell
 ing of the opening Up of the new, ant what promises to be a very rich, oil ant natural gas fields in central Texas, ther' also came from Colorado encouragin
 reports which refer to the discovery o N new oil fields in the Ignite coal region of northern central Colorado The indica tions are that this field will prove t bo one of the largest in the far west So also the discovery has been mad that some of the shale rock in the ia | west can be so treated as to compel
 to wield oil in commercial quantities an
 at low cost of production. The metho
 which will be adopted will presumabl
 be similar to that which has been sue
 cessfully employed in Scotland for tn
 extraction of oil from shale. One of tn
 best evidences that oil production pros
 peeting is in progress upon a great seal ] is of a kind which should lead the pee
 pie to beware of making an investmer in the stocks and securities which repre- I sent alleged rich oil properties som parts of the far west are flooded Wit prospectacies containing offers of stoci
 some of it as low as ID cents snat
 much of if @ cents a share. Investmer in stock Of this kind is a peril but
 view of the fact that in great gan : ble'' as the oil men call it, which tn