Evening star., 1921-10-17
WALL Street LIST
!, IS WEAK, Lower
Strike Threat an Influence,
But Smash in Marks
Also Effective.
BY STUART P.-wEsT.

NEW YORK, October 1.-THE vote
for nationwide railway strike
while startling enough in the news
Of the day. did not take the Wall
street community at all by surprise.
Action of the sort had been fore
shadowed in the price movement a,
the close Of last week. 1t was d
question whether the weakness OF
the stock market today was not due
even more to the continued panic in
German exchange than it was to the
troubles of the railroads
one thing was sure. the market
was not going down for fear of 4
strike. which. if it comes at all. is
sure to be an absolute fizZle.
What investment capital was afraid
of last week. and still more today
was that the railroad executives
would not be left to fight the situa-
tion out alone. but that the Wash
lngton authorities would step in and
compel an arrangement by which the
carriers would forfeit much of what
they gained by the 12h per cent wage
reduction of July.
The apprehension was greatly in
creased by the plan put forward by
the public group of the labor board
II the July award on wages is al
lowed to stand. but Il general lower
ing of freight rates is demanded
without any compensation in the shape
of lower labor costs. it would npllify
a large part of the increased earn
ing power which the railroads had
been showing in their monthly re-
ports since June. and would put many
of them back to position where
they were not covering fixed charges.
1t was the suggestion of this con-
"tingencv. and not the strike "rte it,
self. which was behind the selling of
the railway shares today.
= Weakness General.
The strike vote had been pretty
we'll anticipated on Saturday and as
the market for the railway shares
had chance to get ready, the open
ing declines this morning were not a,
all violent. Chesapeake & Ohio. off
1ss points, was down the most OF
any. Others. like Great Northern
preferred. Southern Pacific, Baltimore
started in l to IA points lower.
These losses were somewhat in
creased later on, but the rails as a
group were no weaker than other
stocks. Some attempt was made at
the beginning to steady the oil shares
Guently under the hasty closing out
of a number of the unsubstantial
speculative accounts which were built
up in these stocks last week.
There was feeling, however. that
regardless of railway developments
IL the recent advance in oil prices
holds, the oil shares are entitled to
all and moro than their late gain
and would be we'll taken care of on
any further decline.
street View of Strike.
Wall street did not get unduly ex-
cited over the threat of a vast rail-
way tie-up. 1t took particular notice
of the fact that from two to three
weeks must elapse before the strike
order takes effect. This delay. it was
believed. was planned to give time
for political pressure to be brought to
bear. The labor leaders. it was
thought, were not all anxious to face
the test of a walkout under such ad-
verse conditions as at present. 1t was
argued that the fortnight of grace
promise plan which would let
the labor chiefs out satisfactorily in
the eyes Of their men, One view ex-
pressed was that the whole purpose
Of the strike vote was to force the
carriers back under government con-
troll and give the union leaders more
,ot voice in the administrations la
bor policy.
Marks Slump.
Had it not been for the railway crisis
everything in todays markets would
have been overshadowed by the ex-
traordinary incidents in the foreign eX-
changes. The German currency panic
reached its most acute stage thus far.
Predictions that the loss of the Silesan
coal and zinc mines would result in
further severe depreciations in the
marks were plainly being taken at their
face value. Before New York was open
for business mark exchange. under a
tremendous wave of German selling.
had broken to 5I-100 of a cent. against
66la on Saturday and - on Friday last.
AS the frantic holders of marks
threw over their German money they
became eager buyers of foreign cur
rencies- This buying put up Dutch
exchange. the violent rise in which
was an almost equally striking fea-
ture in the market. Belgian drafts
went up and 50 did sterling, and in
most instances purchases for German
account were apparently a factor. 1t
was rather obvious fact that, while
these other currencies were rising,
French francs were dropping sharp
1y. Their weakness was even more
significant than the fall in the marks
of the concern in banking circles over
the Silesian decision and bearing upon
Germany's ability to meet the indem-