Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-19
Trend Of PRICES
DOWNWARD TODAY
Rails Sag in Sympathy With
Reports of Probable Labor
Board Action.
BY STUART p. WEST.

WALL STREET, New York, July 49,
wan street came down to business to-
DAY confronted by several conflicting
developments over the week end. On
Tie one hand the bank statements is
sued after the close Saturday were
nisnly encouraging. They were easily
the best that have been put out in re-
cent months. They showed the general
ieoerai reserve position to be back to
nearly the highest of June, which meant
the hlsnest since the early part of the
year Also there was the very signifi-
CENT report as to the increasing eff
cheney OF labor contained in the reply
received by the industrial bureau of the
Merchants' Association from forty-nine
manufacturers throughout the country.
rms showed steady improvement,
especially during the last four or five
.Lohtns- While not yet back to normal
,ne production demand was very much
. DuriGs inan In September last. when
efficiency was only 70 per cent of normal
IN the other hand. there was the
rather unexpected threat from the
laoor conference assembling at Chi
cago that the awards of the Railway
LABOR board, which will be made
puDlic tomorrow, will be entirely un-
satisfactory to union labor if they
are on the lines suggested by the
forecasts which were current over
the week end. The possibility of the
lnoustrla! community, just as it ap-
pears to be getting on it's feet again,
having to face a strike of 1000. 600
railway employees, naturally had d..
terring effect upon the stock market
which otherwise was disposed to i'm
mediately respond to the improve
meht IN the credit position, as indi-
ments.
Drive Against the shorts.
During the first two hours the pro-
fessionals working on the short side
ala their utmost to get prices down.
gressive in the second hour. after the
call loan renewal rate had appeared
and 1t was found that there was no
reduction from the per cent rate at
the close of lat week The market
got down pretty well to the low
points OF last Friday and in numerous
instances went lower still. But the
tative leaders like the steels and
equipments still held substantially
above the critical level which was
that at the bottom of the May decline.
AS soon as these figures were ap-
proached at all resistance stiffened.
as it had last week. and in the early
AFTERNOON when money for the day
ly. '''"''
Bond Market Not So Strong.
The general bond list was not quite
as strong today as it had been
through last weeks dealings. Prices
as rule were shaded. Liberty bonds
were quite soft, especially the fourth
= As The Belgian TVS got down to
lOO =, as against last weeks high of
100 u. The new Armour Is reached a
high OF s6 early in the day, but later
IeiI BACK to 95A. The relapse in the
newer Investment offerings was ap-
parently due to profit taking by deal
ers who had got in at the original
prices.
The $20.0o0.000 United States Rub
Der notes will bear interest at ~
per cent and will be offered at $50
mat ls-on substantially an 8 per
u zen oasIs' mat so high return had
not peen expected was indicated by
the drop of nearly points in rubber
preferred stock, which pays ner
cent dividends and is junior to the
new notes. The per cent bonds of
the Duquesne Light Company are one
OF the few long term issues which
nave been attempted. They run for
e Unity years bear interest at per
cent and at So, where they are Of
fered. yield about 71s per cent. They
are hrst mortgage on all property
owned In fee by the DuQuesne COM
pany. YIN
Improvement Is ShortIived.
The ease with which the industrial
readers came back point to two
POINTS from their lows again pointed
strongly to the OVERRIDING of bear
operations. The afternoon Improve
ment did not extend very far except
in one or two specialties. The mark ct
was still awaiting the extremely i'm
portant decision tomorrow on the
railway wage scale and was not dis
posed to do much until it was seen
wnetner there was anything serious
about the threats of a great railway
tie-up in case the award was unsat-
lsfactory to the labor party.
Baldwin Locomotive. Republic Steel,
Mexican Petroleum, Pan-American.
Vanadium and Stromberg had the
sharpest recoil. this merely because
these were the stocks in which the
bear party had been especially ac-
tive.
The greater part Of the list con-
tented itself with regaining in the
latter part of the session a fair part
of the losses sustained in the early
dealings.
Sterling exchange broke another
2h cents on the pound to 3S4h.
This was 10 cents under the high of
ten days ago, when the American
demands for gold were at their
maximum. This decline again re-
Elected principally the pressure of
bills drawn against pres
ent and pending shipments Of grain
and cotton from this country.
After a brief period Of steadiness
in the early curb market trading to-
day the market became heavy and
material losses were recorded in a
of the leading issues. Deal
ings were smaller than they have
been in some time and little interest
was shown in the afternoon.