Evening star., 1922-08-16
STOCKS RESPOND
!. TOSTR|KE ACTION
1ndustriaIs and Rails Take
Higher Ground-Gains
Are General.
BY STUART r. WEST.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, August 16.-This
mornings strike news simply follow
ed the indications Of the previous
day. yet it had a decidedly favorable
effect upon all the markets. Wall
street had known on Tuesday
from the request of the railway
brotherhoods for another conference
that these labor organizations were
anxious to settle the shopmen's
strike. 1t had guessed that this was
the beginning of the end. The acS
rail executives and the liking of the
meeting for Thursday were the only
fresh items in the situation today,
but the markets found in this new
encouragement for discounting the
wind-up of the railway. troubles.
At the same time lthe Cleveland
coal conference turned out in the
manner expected and the virtual GER
tainty of the e>early resumption of coal
mining on scale large enough to
meet the needs of the country con-
tributed to the cheerful sentiment of
the day.
Industrials Are Leaders.
Railway shares had made the bet
ter part of their response to the
favorable turn in the labor situation
IN the to point advance of the
previous day. They went higher
again, but were not as prominent, by
any means. as the industrials. The
buying sought out more particular
stocks of companies whose business
with serious curtailmeat, owing to
the combination of delayed transpor-
tation and fuel scarcity. In this
category were United States Steel
1rv1Np nc
motor stocks and the mining shares
The railway equipment issues were
actively bought in the belief that the
termination of the strike would mean
great svercrowding of the rail-
roads and a rush Of new business to
the makers of cars and locomotives
The upward turn continued In the
oil stocks and seemed to be based on
genuine evidence that the recent
price-cutting has been thorough and
ing the rather weak statistical posi-
ton of month ago.
Foreign Exchange Unsettled.
With the exception of sterling
movement of the other foreign cur
rencies. the foreign exchanges passed
through another unsettled day. Gable
reports that closing of the Berlin
bourse was being considered. showed
the deSperateness of the crisis created
by the break-or of the London con-
ference on reparatiohs. The German
mark broke below ten one-hundredths-
that is, it became worth less than a
tenth of cent against a prewar
value of nearly "a cents.
What is taking place now is another
panic of the type which has been
frequent during the last twelve
months where the Germans them
selves have been exchanging their
holdings of currency for commodi-
ties or securities regardless of how
The effect is, of course. to force up
security prices to dangerous height,
inviting a terrible collapse. In an
effort to avoid this 1t is not surpris-
ing that a suspension of business on
the Berlin Stock Exchange should be
under discussion.
Trading Tapers on.
The stock market followed the same
right along for the last week or so.
Trading kept up with q show of ac-
tivity through the forenoon and
through the early part of the after
noon then, in the last two hours, fell
off to very small dimensions. 1t was
a very dull and lostless market in the
. late afternoon.
Stocks of coal-carrying railroads.
such as Lehigh Valley. Reading, West
ern Maryland and Wheeling and Lake
Erie attracted some attention in the
came down a bit from the early highs,
but still leaving a substantial net
gain.
The call money renewal was fixed
at az per cent, the lowest in fort
night.