The Washington herald., 1922-08-03
FIN ANcIAL
RULES
STOCKS AS TRADE
IS MARKING Time
Street, Unalarmed Over
Strike, Assumes Watch
full Waiting Attitude.

ful waiting Attitude.
NEW YORK. Aug. 2.-watchful
waiting with no disposition to be
alarmed was the stock markets re-
sponse to the railway executives
refusal OF the Presidents proposal
to restore full seniority to the
striking shopmen. A slight recess
sion at the opening was followed
by a. distinct show of firmness over
however. distinctly small. In the
Afternoon a sagging back left
changes irregular at the close. Do
mestic bonds meanwhile continued
firm with the speculative rails still
active and with one Liberty max
ing a new high. Foreign issues.
however. continued to show weak
ness Call money held at per
cent until early in the last hour.
when II was raised to AZ per cent.
Before the close IL touched 5 per
cent.
Buyfng Power Surprises.
The buying power which came
into the market within a few min
utes Of the opening and which
caused vigorous advances in many
issues after some degree Of weak
ness had been apparent In the
opening quotations, was a surprise
to most Of Wall Street. With the
railroad presidents apparently at q
deadlock, not only with their en-
ployes but with the national gov
ernment as we'll. and the menace
of a serious coal shortage facing
the country's industry. there
seemed raw materials ready to
hand for a bear raid of real i'm
portance. Instead of this. after
few thousand shares of stock had
been thrown overheard at the mar
ket on the opening sales. broad
demand developed in both rail and
Industrial lists and advances rang
ing from a fraction to several
points were general. Even the
motor shares. which have been
without market friends for some
days. advanced in surprising
fashion
Rail Crisis Pet Topic.
Although the announcement made
late yesterday afternoon of the rail
executives rejection of President
Harding's proposal to settle the
shopmen's strike on the basis Of
the status quo ante appeared to
have little effect on the course of
the stock market. IL was the uni
versal topic of discussion through
out the financial district this morn
ing. In general decision of the
rail heads met with approval. The
wide avenue which the acceptance
of the White House proposal would
leave for future labor difficulties
and the assurance which ii would
give to the men were thought to
leave the executives little choice
but to reject it. The opinion was
freely expressed in the Street that
the whole proposal was founded
merely on expediency and that the
clause providing for reference of
wage cuts and working conditions
back to the Labor Board would
simply mean another strike a few
months hence with the confidence
Of the men greatly strengthened
by realization of their power.
OF course the most important
dsPCCl Vi Nhc TdliTOdu ldOOT
tion from the point of view of the
financial district was the question
as to what course events will now
take. In some quarters 1t was be-
Heved that President Harding
would reiterate bis views and per-
haps couple a second proposal to
the executives with a threat of
government operation of the car
riers. According to the view the
executives would then be in a po-
sition to give in gracefully. point
ing out that they had been forced
by government action to yield on
the question of seniority against
their own judgment. In other re-
spects the Presidents proposal. 1t
was pointed out. is virtually VIC
tory for the carriers inasmuch as
it provides for the acceptance by
the men Of the Labor Board deci-
sion
At any rate unless the stock
market has been suddenly deprived
of that omniscience which Wall
Street is so fond of ascribing to it.
the strike Is going to be settled
before any really serious harm has
been done to business and settled
on a basis which will be not un-
favorable to the carriers
After the activity on the up side
during the first hour the volume
of trading fell Off sharply. trans
actions during the second hour
amounting to considerably less
than 100000 shares. Prices held
remarkably firm, however, and at
noon most issues in both the rail
and Industrial sections were SELL
ing at or close to the mornings
highs
Crude OIL situation.
Talk of dollard crude oil. which
was characterized as ridiculous
when IL was first heard two or
three weeks ago after the initial
round of price cuts. appeared to be
at least within the rahge of possi-
hility this morning when announce
ment was made that Sinclair and
Prairie had announced a price of
s1-25 for Mid-continent crude.
One of the brokerage houses
which has been bearish on the mo-
tor issues for several weeks was
today recommending the purchase
of the dividend paying stocks in
this group for the 10 per cent re-
turn which several Of them yield
on their present dividend rates.