The Washington herald., 1920-09-01
RAILS FEATURE.
DULL SESSION
Strength Also Shown in
Standard Issues and
Cheap Stocks.
TIME MONEY HURTS
Nothing Disturbing Occurs
To Jar Market from
Professional Rut.
FME MONEY HURTS

New York, Aug. 31.-Railroad
shares were the features of the
stock market today with the stan
dard issues and the so-called cheap
stocks equally strong. Money re-
newed at per cent and went as
high as in the afternoon, causing
= a reaction which, however, did not
wipe out all of the advances of the
day. The close was steady, with
met gains showing in the rails and
in several industrials. Foreign
news was not alarming and nothing
developed at home to jar the marke'
tout Of the professional rut into
which 1t has fallen.
In regard to the rails very In
teresting situation exists. The
freight congestion + being cleared
up rapidly and the trains are being
speeded up so that there Will be
more free movement OF traffic than
at any time in many months. As
to the reasons for this there is a
radical disagreement between the
advocates OF government ownership
and Of private ownership. The
trader cares nothing for either the
ory because he can maks money
under either condition, but facts are
facts and the fact is that the freight
congestion is disappearing and that
rates are up. Clearing Of the tracks
spIus the big freight advance means
, larger earnings and consequently
more financial reasons for higher
prices
Rail Movements Freakish.
A.. That the movements Of the rails
are freakish was demonstrated to-
day when Baltimore and Ohio pre-
ferred. which is a 4 per cent non
cumulative stock, sold about =
points higher than the 1 per cent
bonds OF the Toledo and Cincinnati,
which are guaranteed by the Balti-
more and Ohio. In one house an in
yestOr who held the preferred stock
sold it and bought the bonds As
: stated previously in this column,
zpreferred railroad stocks are really
EBonds under the present laws, be
acause there is not a railroad in
AmeriCa that is not worth its pre-
ferred stock. and Congress has de-
Hereed that the roads must be per-
Emitted to earn L to per cent on
rthe values of the properties.
Bonds Display Strength.
Investment houses say they have
. Seldom seen such a strong bond
1market The buying on the part of
the public and of big investors has
never been so persistent. Both
sIong and short-term securities are
sin demand. These investors who
want large incomes annually are
staking the short term issues but
those who are satisfied with a small
Ter annual return are taking the
long-term securities because they
expect a very sharp advance in
prices when the money rates are re-
stored to normal.
American International Corpora
ttion had another Of its peculiar
Isinking spells. dropping points,
Sbut recovering about half of that
loss. Atlantic Gulf and West In
dies. which is the other large ship
ping oil stock on the board had am
early advance Of more than points
but in the afternoon lost this.
President Guffey. of the Atlantic
Gulf and West Indies. is in the
midst of an interesting fight with
the other American companies de-
veIoping oil lands in Mexico. He is
reported to have elected to operate
Ibis properties under the protection
of the Mexican government. This
action promises to bring the Mexi-
can oil fight to an early end by pre-
cipitating the crisis.
Wall Street was pleased with
President Wilson's stand on the coal
miners wages Traders believe that
in view of the Presidents stand
there will be no coal strike this
year If there is a coal strike in
England that will furnish so much
more business for the American
companies and the railroads that
haul coal to market