Evening star., 1921-06-15
BEARSPERS|STENT
IN THEIR RAIDS
BY STUART p. WEST.

NEW YORK, June 15.-Again today
interest in financial happenings was
pretty much absorbed by the violent
price changes on the stock exchange.
1t was a question whether. after the
respite OF yesterday, the market
would renew its decline or whether
the element OF support which had be-
gun to appear toward Mondays close
would still be manifest.
The speculative faction working for
lower prices had another piece of ef-
fective ammunition in the report from
an expert attached to the Shipping
Board, supporting more sensationally
than ever. the talk which has been
going around for long time past
about the apprcaching exhaustion of
the Mexican oil supply.
The findings in this report were
hatly contradicted by the president
Of the company, but not before Mexi-
can Petroleum shares had broken an
other eight points and before the en-
tire Mexican Oil group had established
new lows.
The overnight collapse in the Mexi-
can oils gave the bear party abundant
courage to go ahead exploiting other
weak points among individual stocks.
Wherever there was a question OF
possible dividend cutting the stock
concerned was attacked.
In this category were American
Sugar, American Sumatra. Industrial
Alcohol and Virginia Carolina Chemi-
cal preferred.
Driving on List.
Baldwin Locomotive and Interna-
tional Paper were others that were
driven down sharply. and the unfor-
tunate Atlantic Gulf and West Indies
stocks had another sinking spell be-
, cause, apparently. of an unfavorable
Interpretation placed upon the state
ment by the president of the com
pany that the program for straighten-
Ing out the finances were being held
up by the delay on the part of share
holders in sending in their proxies.
Mexican Petroleum Decline.
The first effect of the Phelan report,
with it's extremely pessimstic findings
regarding the MeXicon oil supply. was
an overnight drop of Z points in Mex
lean Petroleum. Selling ex-dividend
block Of 1000 shares at 120. against
last nights final of 100. 1t might have
been expected that when the Mexican
Petroleum president came out with a
statement on the other side. in which
he refuted most of the testimony in
the report Of the Shipping Board ex-
pert. the stock would have rallied
sharply.
! Mr.. Doheny stressed the fact that
the State Department refused to put
| its seal to the conclusions of the
| official Investigator. He described
nor an oil producer. who had made a
hasty trip through the oil fields and
had come out with an account which
was very inaccurate and misleading.
The morning newspaper accounts
had spoken of the remaining Mexi-
| can oil reserves estimated by the De-
partment Of the Interior as only A.
100000 barrels. This. as Mr.. Doheny
pointed out, was omitting three
! ciphers. the correct total as given
some time ago by the director Of the
geological survey being 100000 0no
barrels, or enough to insure export
at the 1920 rate for forty-five years
to come.
No Decentralization.
Enough weak spots were uncovered
! to unsettle the general list for a time.
decentralization of last week and the
| week before was about to recur.
Prices went off a point or so all
| through the list while the dozen or
/ SO special issues were breaking. but
| as soon as these ceased going down
| there was a quick recovery.
| The same contention which made
| the Mexican oils weak made the
| American oils strong. The inference
| that il the Mexican oil supply was really
giving out, American oil reserves must
become potentially much more valuable
was quite logical. But the veXed
question OF the true position in the
! Mexican oil fields has not been set
| tied. by any means. The fact that
partment was willing to stand behind
the report Of the agent of the Ship
ping Board obviously took away much
| from its credibility.