Evening star., 1920-02-24
STOCKS IRREGULAR;
RAILS co HIGHER
BIZ STUART y. WEST.
tStaH Correspondent of The Star,

BIZ STU ART y. WEST.
tStaT Correspondent of The starr
WALL STREET. New York, Febru-
AIRY 24.-Today's market was divided
between two conflicting impulses, On
one hand there was the trium phant
passage of the new railroad bin by
majorites in both houses much great
er than had been looked for.
on the other hand there were the
depressing bank figures issued after
tIi,. '..o>}- - .,Gs:H--S SATURDAY. which
showed tn f"i,-rai reserve ratio down
to Il is.., !a.v ri ..i.i against 3S.3 the
pro- luhi N-...:. J'h stree. disposed
to JDur. ,..oi,. tor ,ujne,S '.,!idNDrabl'
than for .,nt th;IfG fsivordo.e, p-pteSSed
a great .inai more concern about the
bank ngur.l t:.ftn about the SUCCESS or
the railw ay legislation.
Pressed for Sale.
All the industrals We're pressed
heavily for sale at the opening and
continued to decline until they had
lost all the way from point to three
points from the Saturday final This
movement was extremely rapid and
indicated how largely short covering
had been responsible for the rally at
the close of last week.
The pressure diminished considera-
low points for the month.
1t was hard to Great" any great
amount of peSSimlSm over the bank
showing when the call loan renewal
was not raised from the = per cent at
which it has stood all through the lat
ter half Of last week.
The railway shares were carried
down temporarily. but only because
there was a numerous outside follow
ing which was frightened Out by the
veakneSS in the industriaiS. These
outside offerings were readily taken.
and as soon as the shake down i'll the
Industrial quarter was over the rails
rebounded rapidly.
BY early afternoon many of the low
priced rails were selling higher than
ever. The old-time standard dividend
payers. while strong. did very little
While their investment position has
been strengthened materially by the
new legislation. their speculative pos
sibilities have been limited.
1t is the loW-priced, non-dividend
payers which are the prime speculative
favoriteS. because they have the larg-
est potentialitieS under the new condi-
tionS.
still Builish on Rails.
While the induStrials We're break
ing sharply on the shock occasioned
by the Federal Reserve Bank state
tive following in the rails which had
profits in them left over from last
week should hasten to realize. This
selling in the first half hour caused
the maximum loss of point to ,
points all through the railway group.
But the promptneSs with which the
low priced rails came back showed
that the main position in them had
not been changed. and that there was
still a very ready demand when they
were offered down at all.
Wall street felt that the imm liza e
effect of the passage of the Cummins-
Esch bill in the House and Senate
might have been discounted but that
the more the benefits of the law were
studied the more it would appear that
many of these rails have been greatly
undervalued in the market of the past
month.
Traction St0ckn.
often times the traction stocks are
taken up in the wake of bull move
ment in the rails. 1t does not there
fore signify any Independent move or
one which could be referred to eX-
pected developments in the traction
situation. 1t may be that the present
advance in Brooklyn Rapid Transit
and Interborough Consolidated may
similarly turn out a thing more than
a sympathetic speculation. But, a all
events, the recent buying of these
stocks has been quite impressive and
has not seemed designed to mark up
prices but rather to accumulate stock.
street Sentiment Mixed.
The writer's of market opinion were
practically unanimous this mOrnin &
before the opening in advising their
clientele to take profits if they had
any, and if not to sell stocks anyhow.
Several took the position that the re-
serve bank statement of Saturday was
so poor that stocks simply could not
rally further in the face of it. Others
could not see any good in anything
even belittling the constructive eff
fects of the new railroad legislation.
California Packing.
California Packing Company has
the declaration of quarterly divi-
dend of 1 :. per cent. The action is
simply following the announcement made
some time ago that the stock would be
placed on a per cent basis at this
meeting. Previous to the increase in
the dividend rate it was per cent.
California Packing has kept pace with
the rest of the market recently, but it
is still quite a distance from it's high
despite the fact that the company Off
Gals have announced that California
Packing profits are running at a rec
ord-ofeaklnS pace.
Endic0tt johnson.
Endicott johnson sold off rather
sharply on the announcement that
earnings last year were at the rate of
SASS a share, $50 par, on the $l4.-
100000 outstanding common stock.
The gross sales of the company to-
tailed $62713.039 and the total profits
were well over s10,O60,0O0 There is
still talk that the company will de-
clare an extra dividend at the meeting
to be held early part Of next month.
The Nickel Plate.
In addition to sucl. roads AS Rock
Island. Frisco, Missouri Pacific, etc
which have attracted the attention of
both spectators and the investigatins
pubic, one road which good many
railroad people look with favor on
under the new railroad legislation is
New York, Chicago and St Louis.