New-York tribune., 1918-10-19
Finance Economics
WALL STREET OFFICE: Telephone
Mills Building, IS Broad St. Hanover 651@

Consider this fact-it is striking
enough.
japanese bankers have bought
fourth Liberty Loan bonds-mill-
ions of dollars worth Of them.
The motive is unknown. Perhaps,
having the advantage of perspec-
tive, they see better than we do the
merits of the worlds premier sccu
rity as a sound and profitable in
Vestment. Perhaps, the purchases
are simply an expression of good
will. 1t makes no difference; there
is a lesson for US in either case.
If the bonds are desirable in
vestment for distant japanese bank
ers, how much more desirable are
they as medium for the investment
of your funds?
If the japanese have it in their
hearts to buy Liberty bonds out of
good will for the United States.
how can an American refrain from
buying bonds to the limit of his cur
rent resources. plus the margin of
his income for the next six months
or more?
What our Far Eastern friends
can do, you can do. Do it.
\ wave of speculation, the like of
which has not been witnessed since
the elimination of the great bull
market in the late fall Of 1916,
hared up in Wall Street yesterday.
Transactions totalled i,59S,700
shares. The average Of prices rose
1856 points. The market was SEN
sational in whole and supersensa
tional in spots. Standing out above
all other phases was the pyrotech-
nical action of Mexican Petroleum.
That stock has been fuctuating
widely for several weeks, but moth
ing that had happened before COM
pared with its wild gyrations yes
terday Starting at 159, the issue
moved with hardly more than its
usual speed until early in the after
noon. Then things began to hap
pen. The demand for the stock
seemed to be out Of all proportion
to the supply, and strings Of quota
tions came out with points between
sales. In an incredibly short time it
vas selling AZ points above the
low Of the preceding day. Then, all
at once, the demand appeared to
have spent it's greatest force and the
price began to recede, dropping Is
points or more almost as rapidly as
it had risen. At the end net gain
for the day Of 241a points had been
made. Wall Street was at a loss
to explain the episode, although
guesses were plentiful enough. One
had it that the intrinsic merits of
the stock warranted the movement;
but that was hardly acceptable. The
action Of the stock was too vio-
lent to be accounted for in any such
commonplace way. Another was
that a fight was on for the control
! of the property; still another that
N the stock had been cornered. These
Y were mere guesses. but traders had
to be satisfied with them, lacking
authoritative information.
In any event, the fact remained
that the rest of the market, while
less disorderly than Mexican Petro-
leum, was remarkably strong and
rose very sharply under pressure Of
excited bidding from all parts of
the country. Few issues lost ground,
while the gains were most extern
sive. Rails, coppers, steels--war
stocks and peace stocks alike---were
bought with that peculiar enthusi-
asm that is seldom witnessed save
when a bull market is in the max
ing. There is no doubt that the
public is in the market on a large
and rapidly expanding scale. That
it is poor time to Inoulge in an
orgy of speculation does not alter
the fact.
The money committee could, il it
desired, prevent such a develop
ment, but apparently it has decided
to let things go on unchecked for
the time being. At any rate it has
made no effort to restrain specula-
tion, although there is obviously
more need for restrictions now than
there was month or two ago, when
the committee seemed inflexibls in
its determination to hold down the
supply of funds for speculation.
Possibly it may issue another warn
ing in the near future. 1t has been
said that the reason for lifting the
restrictions is that bull market is
desirable to assist in the f1otation of
the Liberty Loan. If SO, the reason
is not a valid one, the opinion of
many competent observers. The
wild market of the last day or two
has hurt rather than helped the