Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-12-06

Evening Suns weekly financial review
today says:
About the only feature to trading in
today's short session of the stock mar
ket was the failure of the list to follow
up the brief squirt Of Fridays late SEES
sion consequent upon the announcement
Of the release by Mexico of Consular
Agent jenkins. Indeed this act of
grace on the part of Carranza was far
from closing the chapter Of grievances
which this country has against its surly
southern neighbor. Senator Fell will
press his resolution for rupture of
diplomatic relations and the Senate
looks for a message from the President
on the subject by the early part of the
week.
This situation served to keep the
market in a state of hesitation. The
price list was unsettled from the be-
ginning. but business was dull to de-
gree and changes narrow save in few
isolated cases. As the group the steels
were perhaps heavier in tone than most
a pronounced reversal of trend. quite to
be expected under the circumstances.
In short there were indications
throughout that many We're engaged in
profit taking and otherwise occupied in
adjusting accounts over a week end
which bade fair to be frought with
numerous unforeseen developments.
There were not lacking firm spots. but
both offerings of stock and buying
initiative were signa!ly lacking.
1t was pretty conclusively demon
strated this week that the recent liQuida-
ting movement in the securities market
has come TO an end. Like the rivulet
which at the last loses itself in a
woodland morass. selling of stocks
streamed into saturated ground of q
large short interest and there stood
stagnant until latterly when the ac-
cumulation began to force a back fow
Recovery was broad in the middle of
the week. but was barely sustained
yesterday so far as the industrial list
was concerned although the highly spec =
tacular performance of Southern Pacific
shares supplied a sensation which be
guiled other railroad issues into more
or less bullish antics. There could be
little doubt that commitments had
been piled up on the short side. in most
of the leading stocks as well as many
of the followers. In other words, the
bears had taken full advantage of the
vulnerable position into which the
market as whole had placed itself
through the period of eager speculation
as well as of the necessity for selling
to establish losses for the federal taA
return.
As for the latter. the selling move
ment began far earlier this year than
last, probably month at least, apd it
is possible that, in the violence of the
break in prices in mid November. the
extent of that species Of liquidation was
not fully realized. At any rate it seems
to have been largely completed and the
belief not less well grounded that the
sellers were this week seeking to buy
! back. Certainly the price level was low
enough at the beginning of the week to
tempt them to do so without waiting
for the hypothetical repetition of the
last moment rush to sell which. it
will be recalled. characterized the clos
ing fortnight of December last year.
Bears Get Nervous
As the realization of this dawned
upon the bears it began TO look to
them as though they had ovcrdone the
selling part of the game and they be =
came nervous in proportion. This in
turn was impressed upon the specula-
| tive fraternity of long propensities and
the result was a revival to moderate
extent of pool operations and also of
general outside buying. How far this
will develop from now on is wholly
| coniectural.
Money rates continued today but il
was not at all clear that offerings were
| in volume. Six per cent was the re-
newing rate through the week and,
save for a monetary drop to 512 per
cent on Wednesday. loans ruled at that
figure. Sentimentally this favored the
whatever to indicate that the Federal
Reserve authorities had changed or mod
fled their stand as to supplying funds
for speculative purposes. The Treas
ury Department, at the reassembling OF
Congress, asked the fabulous total of
| 4.S65. .410,031 for appropriations for
government in the fiscal year 1921. The
annual interest payment on the public
debt, including $50, 900. 900 900 of war
debt. alone exceeds 81 900, ,000, 900 and
is greater than all the government has
hitherto expended in peace time.
At the same time the President, in
his message. and, more elaborately, the
secretary of the treasury. in his an
nual report. urged upon the Congress
revision of the revenue law to the
end that the excess profits taxes and
surtaxes on incomes be reduced. imply
ing an increase in the levies on small
incomes. Few questions before the
country are more vital than this be
cause on it hinges the problem of in
..natp:sl financing. not to say foreign
trade financi':+. Financiers have in =
sisted for months past that wealthy
men can no longer afford to invest in
other than tax exempt securities. III
| this is true and it does not appear tC
have been refuted it operates directly
foreign financing.
Private Financing Needed
This is the more significant when the
government makes it perfectly clear that
the matter of financing foreign trade
| IN the business of private and not OF
governmental agencies. The secretary
of the treasury so stated explicitly in his
annual report and he was not less posi- =
| tive in stating that the government
would do nothing TO support the foreign
! exchanges which dropped to new low
| levels. Sterling bills at S3.S550 were
| almost exactly at a discount of 81 from
| the mint parity of 4.S06J. Francs were
at new low ebb and lire approx
| mately so.
The wholly fallacious contention that
! low rates of exchange were of benefit
| to this country because they tended tC
! prevent foreign trading and thereby re
! duce the cost of living by releasing
goods held for export, might be ex
pected, perhaps, to impose upon some
but Wall street had no illusions about
this pulling down a tenement to build
a hut. The problem of adjusting the
| exchange is of as much concern to this
country as to any other because pres
perity depends in these days of ready
communication on foreign trade. The
outlook for such adjustment, however
was regarded as rather dubious so lons