Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-28

.. wv" Fen. ZS.-lnp New 1Ork
Evening Suns closing financial review
today says:
Ioday's short session Of the stock
market was thin and narrow and want
ing in initiative. although it was still
evident that the bear traders we're
standing by ready to avail themselves
OF any opportunity to raid the list which
occasion might supply. Indeed. they did
succeed in making an impression now
and then in the first hour.
With the Presidents signature with
held from the railroad bill, there was
either a deoitae or a rise In railroad
shares.
It was the understanding after the.
market had opened that the bill would
not be signed before this afternoon.
That 1t would be signed was accepted as
foregone conclusion, since the attor-
ney general could not find any legal
flaws in the measure and the director
general was disposed to approve 1t as the
best thing of the kind that could be ex-
pected under the circumstances. The
roads go back to their owners on Mon
day. and the satisfaction to be derived
from the fact that they would be re-
turned with some sort of legislative
protection was an element in injecting
n sitter leavening In the railroad list
than the industrials could lay claim to.
Both industrials and rails were ir-
regular in the first half Of the session
and at the end Of that period there
was little net change. but in the second
hour the rails hardened materially and
some aggressive buying came into the
ranks of the lower priced rails like
Missouri. Kansas and Texas prefer
red, Missouri Pacific preferred, South
ern Railway and Baltimore and Ohio.
Reading did well also. Among the in .
dustrials, the tobarcos made n good
showing and one or two of the oils.
Steel was virtually unchanged, like
wise Republic Iron and Steel after
dipping a point or so.
Market Situation Befogged
1t would be superfluous perhaps to
dwell upon the connection between the
financial situation of this country and
the unsettled, not to say respondent,
state of the public mind as reflected in
Wall street, were it not for the sus
picion that professional calamity
howlers' have been largely responsible
for the deep gloom which has settled in
quarters where many are prone to ac
cept opinions and Judgments Of the
SNAP variety or made to order by
others not wholly disinterested.
Such thinkers by proxy have long
been imposed upon. Unfortunately their
numbers constitute a majority in the
shadow of Trinity as elsewhere: in con-
sequence, the United States and the rest
Of the world are heading to destruction
forsooth. To dissect and appraise some
nf thn mora falling fnptnrS Hpyplnpipp "
day by day is to refute many argu-
ments and to minimize others. But it
is the line of least resistance to settle
back and permit the fog of doubt to
obscure whatever may be seized upon as
favorable or constructive.
The public was conspicuous by its
absence in the securities market this
week Professional traders were left in
control and they were quick to sense
the trend Of sentiment toward pes
simism. Thus there was presented the
spectacle Of further declines in market
already supposed to have been pretty
we'll liquidated, not because holders of
stocks felt the general situation called
for further sacrifice on their part, but
because many of them were too easily
persuaded by what lay on the surface
and not under it. A state of affairs
which makes it possible for irrespOn-
sible persons to circulate unsettling ru
mors and distort facts is not to be
ignored because such things, il car
ried far enough, may conceivably bring
about Il condition of emotional stress
which one more rumOr or one more dis
tortcd fact may convert into panic.
Short Interest OvereXtended
There were not lacking those in the
street who were frankly perturbed by
such n possibility, aud deprecated the
seeming ability of the bears to engineer
raids whenever and. in whatever quar-
ter they listed. Growing concern that
such should be the case was one of the
encouraging features Of the week. IL
was reflected in the recovery in stock
prices witnessed on Thursday and Il
good part of yesterday. The rally was
not due to general buying; il was due
directly to covering by the shorts whose
interests apparently had become highly
vulnerable through the large proper.
tions of their interests The truth would
seem to be that the bears had based
their calculations more on the state
of the public mind, the psychological
factor. rather than on actual economic
or political grounds.
The long side presented few, IL any
opportunities for speculative enterprise /;
the only course left was to go short OF
the market. The latter was overdope,
but this does not mean necessarily tnat
bull movement Is in the making. 1t
means merely u speculative corrective.
1t does not require large sums of money
to sell short. but it does require an
easy money market. or relatively easy
one, to start bull movement and keep
it going.
The present money situation does not
lend itself to anything of the kind. Call
money renewed ON two occasions this
week and on one occasion the leaning
rate advanced to II per cent Metro
politan banks were not offering time
funds at nil, although some out of town
institutions were doing so. attracted by
the high rates of ~ to Sl9 per cent.
according to date and the nature of
the collateral put up.
Money Situation Unchanged
There is little Indication that the
situotion will be changed within the
next two or three weeks. Government
denosits in the banks have reached low
cbb with continuing Withdrawals, insti.
tutions are preparing for March l
financing aud federal and state tax
payments. already being made, must De
completed by March 10. After the
latter date. some relief from money
strain may be experienced. but to what
extent il is difficult to foresee, since
very little is being accomplished in the
way of dehation of credit
The advance in the Federal Reserve
Rank discount rate on loans secured by
treasury certificates Of indebtedness
WINS not very important in itself, but it
was symptomatic. 1t has been more
or less puzzling why there should be
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