The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-03
ONE MAN DEALS
 HEAVILY IN STOCKS
Ry HOLLAND

New York April 2.--(Special The oth- ! CT day a report spread rapidly, the more so because it was believed to be true, | that one person had given an order for | a transaction in the shares of the United | States Steel common stock, the aggre- gate of which was 10000 shares. Of !! course there were many surmises as to the identity of the man who had done this unusual thing, unusual at least for /, these times lsut the securities market l in New York is not only free and liquid but it is impersonal. If a transaction of
 this kind had been carried on in London
 nightly, it would have been inevitable that the name of the man who dared to stand behind an order of 100000 shares of stock would have become known. Here
 transactions made one day are closed im- medately and settlements are so per
 fected that it is almost impossible to dis
 cover the identity of the person, if any attempt is made at concealment.
 Gradually, however, rumor centered upon one man, perhaps because he was known to have $7 000,000 net in the now traditional pool in the United States Steel common
 stock in 1909 He is man of many and varied undertakings. In recent years everything, with a single exception, which he has touched has turned to gold. He is a man who bears losses with perfect equinanimity. Upon one occasion he learned that he had met with a loss of nearly s4000o0. He said to himself as he afterwards reported, Well it's all in the game" and he went to bed and sept soundly. He is banker, he is the sole
 t...-~ .rzE T
 he has even ventured into publishing
 Since this transaction the question has
 been asked many times: Is this man to
 be the new leader in the securities mar
 ket, the one individual for whom so many
 have. been looking since there began to be
 reason for the hope that the market had
 reached the ebb and was now beginning
 to float upon the flood tide?
 WHERE THE DANGER LIES
 No doubt the temptation is strong to
 enter the speculative market and it may
 be that the pubic~will not be restrained.
 Nevertheless there. are some clements of danger Unless man is we'll informed, on the inside, so to speak, he is taking a great risk when he begins to speculate. Of course there are men who speculate exactly as a gambler does who risks his money on the turn of the card. But the great specuators are those who have. as they believe, reason to know what is on the way on the inside.
 For example. an operator of long and successful experience who has now re- tired spoke of the action of the authori- ties in the copper industry in reducing some of the dividends. There were also reports of the accumulation of many mill lion pounds of copper which is awaiting a market. The first impression naturally enough was that the copper industry is not fourishing, so that if man was disposed to speculate in copper stocks he would be likely to sell and not to buy,
 But the fact is that the reduction in the dividend of some of the copper com panies was not due to any impaired financial condition but solely for the pur- pose of meeting the labor situation will be met so that there will be satisfactory readjustment of the relation between those who work in the copper industries and those who direct those industries. 1 It may be that after this Is accomplished it will be possible to resume dividends upon the old basis and when that comes I if it does then the market price of these i stocks will rise.
 A TIME OF OPTIMISM i Although occasionally there may be 1 found man of influence in the world I of finance and banking who looks into ! the present situation and that of the 1 future as though he were peering through l a fog, nevertheless the prevailing senti- ment among the leaders is one of en- coura cement. One of the evidences of this ! feeling is to be discovered in the gath ering in this city of bankers who repre- | sent the real financial centers of the l United States and who contemplate ex- tending all reasonable financial aid to people across the sea who are ready and 1 even anxious to buy commodities in un- | precedented amounts in the United ! States.
 l These bankers believe that all that Is necessary to secure such foreign trade as no country ever before secured, Is !; proper financial assistaIce to those who J would be glad to buy in the United states i if they could borrpy tue capital with 1 which to do it. If they find that capital | th -xx-iiI Nallll reGiilf