Evening star., 1921-11-28
LESS ACTIVITY IN
LOCAL SECURITIES
Potomac Is Opened Higher,
But Advance Is Not Held
Steady.
BY 1. A. FLEMING.


The chiefest interest in the local
security market these days is in the
I per cent bonds of the Potomac Elec-
trio Power Company.
This morning they opened at new
high. 104Aa for a $500 bond Then
one 81 900 bond sold at 104A and the
! market settled back to 104, the clos
ing on Saturday.
Railway 4s. the only other bonds
| traded in, were strong at 81.
Capital Traction stock opened at
91la and closed at 9l5s. Washington
Gas, 4714.
| Mergenthaler was quoted 135 bid, no
official selling price as no stock was
| offered.
| The New York market showed no
| lessening of investment buying.
! The weather was against the local
( market
Baltimore and Ohio Earnings
| Earnings Of the Baltimore and Ohio.
system for the month of October were
made public this morning. They are
| IN Keeping with many other reports,
in that they show gross decrease and
] a material increase in the net operat
| ing revenue.
Cross operating revenues, s19,045,-
| 952, decrease as compared with the
gross for October, 1920, of $5.96y.i43,
| Inc decrease was largely due to loss
OF freight with nearly S5g9,0 loss
| in passenger tIaihc also.
Operating expenses decreased So
4l3.l53, this representing S5.9.o09 less
| expended on way and structures and
| $l,4f2 900 less on equipment. But the
Dig decrease was IN transportation
| expenditures, S4.363.Q51.
Net operating income for the month.
s3,422.491, was S54I,2l5 greater than
for the same month last year
4 For ten months to October 81 the
| company shows slS.693. .69s net operat-
| ing income as compared with a deficit
, OF $5-66l.52S for the same ten months
OF last year, an increase of $24,355,2l
In that time maintainance of equip
ment decreased s19,025,l05 and main
| tainance of way and structures fell
of sb,s9O,199. Transportation costs
/, decreased s20.250.3S4.
Personal Mention.
NJ. f. Allies, president of the Riggs
| National Bank, is in New York CITY
today. He will attend a meeting of
the Economic Club tonight, where his
friend. Frank A Vanderlip, is sched-
uied to speak for the first time since
his recent tour of Europe
MerEenthaIer Activities,
The pamphlet report of the Mergen-
thaler Linotype Company contains
many interesting facts connected with
the operation of the corporation not
indicated in the preliminary reports
made public IN this column two weeks
tago.
The company's new plant increasing
productive capacity 30 per cent. cost
lDver S1,000.00e. and was paid for
without new financing
AT present Mercy" machines are
Delng used to set type in forty-five
! languages. A model TO handle LOO
Chinese characters has been com
pieted and efforts are bing made to
secure a slmpllfication of the Chinese
commercial language that this may
suffice.
The company has put reverse on
its machines that it may set Yiddish
/ which is read from right to left.
During the war the English plant
was unable to make progress profit
ably, but met all expense and main
tanned upkeep in the manufacture of
Rolls Royce engines. gun recoil
| uni:eS, fuses. etc.
The earnings of s1S07 a share were
all from domestic business.
''Why Doesn't Gold CircuIatef"
This question was asked of the Wall
!Street Journal and answered by that
authority as follows:
Certainly gold ciIculates here. in
effect, If not in substance. We see
1t ali the time That SO bin in your
pocket is more than paper. 1T is gold.
and Will remain gold as long as the
United States is on gold basis If
tyou were in Germany or Austria, now
you might ask where the gold is
This gold which you think is per-
forming no useful service is the basis
of our currency. 1t enables US to
have the soundest currency in
the world. But as it is cum
bersome TO carry around and as
it may be made the basis of y. times
in federal reserve notes or three
times it's nominal amount in deposits.
necessity has caused this gold dur
ing the last few years to gravitate
to and remain in the federal reserve
banks.
By concentrating our great gold
store in the federal reserve banks
rency to meet the demands of trade.
This would not be the case If the
yellow metal passed from hand to
hand. Concentrating gold in a CEN
trail bank has the same effectiveness
as the mobilization Of an army under
one leadership.
Federal reserve notes are redeem
able in gold. If you have a $50 fed
eral reserv note you can present il
at a federal reserve bank and get
gold for it. But there is no reason
why you should demand gold. Paper
money has the same purchasing pow
er as gold has in this country. In
Germany, Russia, Poland and Austria.
for instance. paper has no stable
value because they have no adequate
gold reserve.