Evening star., 1923-12-06
PRESIDENTS NOTE
/ HELP TO STOCKS
Reference to Railroads Is
! Taken Favorable, as Many
/ Issues Move Higher.
BIZ STUART p. WEST.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December 6.-In prep
aration for the Presidents message
buying movement early today rather
more general than on any day for
some time. There was nothing SEN
satIonal about the rise. The main
point was that it extended to a larger
number of issues.
Oil shares Ignore Figures.
Oil shares were rather disappointing
in their response to the large de-
crease shown in the weekly figures of
crude oil production. 1t might have
been expected in view of the enthu-
SiaStic buying in other directions that
this strong bit of testimony to the
improvement i'll the oil industry would
have been seized upon by spectators
for the rise. But as il happened,
when attempts were made to bid up
the oil shares, they were quickly sus-
Tended because of running into large
offerings just above the prevailing
price levels
The largest public following was
attracted toward the low-priced rails.
The advance continued in the Erie
issues despite the positive denial by
the Cleveland banking interests that
they had secured control. Opinion
was divided regarding the real ex-
PLANTATION for the Erie move. Some
insisted that the buying was for the
purpose of securing representation in
Ine nIanaS enIenJ. WITH Il View 10 Il
deal with some other road.
Erie Move PuzhIfns.
Others thought that it was simply
ui9 pool operation based upon the
often-stated fact that Erie is now
earning the per cent on both classes
ha Ia Of
over 5 per cent on the common.
Wabash preferred A finally work ed
its way through the large blocks of
stock which have been hanging over
this, it found no difficulty in making
a new high, above So. AS soon as
the stock got into new high ground
there was a rush of buying on the
idea that at length the discounting
OF per cent dividend had begun.
New High Records.
Other low-priced rails which equal
ed or surpassed their previous highs
for the movement were ST. Louis
Southwestern. Southern Railway. Sea
board Air Line preferred. Western
Pacific and Texas and Pacific.
The short interest IN Tobacco Prod
ucts. which had been fighting the rise.
was suddenly put to rout The stock
soon after the opening sold at II, as
against last nights close of 67l2 1t
was up fully ten points from where it
was selling when it was put on a 6 per
cent basis. a new high record was
also made in Tobacco Products A
To the investment community the all
important part of the Presidents mes
sage was his statement that recasting
the railway rate structure must not in
volve new rate schedules that would
not yield fair return. Otherwise rate
readjustments would be conficator and
unconstitutional.
This. Of course, is something which
financial commentators have laid
down as essential truths time and
again. But to have the Chief Execu-
tive come out so firmly and explicitly
on this subject is immensely reassur-
ing to the multitude of investors in
railway securities.
Other parts of the message were al
together favorable from the business
mans standpoint, but they occasioned d
no surprise. 1t had been expected that
the President would urge very strong
1y the Secretary of the Trea sury's
tax-reduction plan and that he would
voluntary lines.
1t is gratifying to find that he
does not take up the favorite cry of
agricultural Distress" but recog-
nizes that the unprofita BILE conditions
in the farming industry are limited.
That is to say, that one section hit
is the wheat country of the north
west and remedy here lies in crop
diversification, cooperative market
ing and the sale of the export surplus
through the War Finance Corpora
ton.
Hostility Believed Conc.
The Inference drawn in Wall street
today was that what little chance
there might have been of legislation
hostile to the railroads now had COM
pletely disappeared. 1t was no won
der that railway shares, both before
and after the reading of the message,
should have occupied the center Of
the stage Dividend paying rails and
the low-priced non-dividend payers
alike were heavily dealt in at the
best prices reached since the turn Of
the market six weeks ago.
Mack trucks and White Motor
shares both were favored for time
today. In the case of the former the
advance was helped by the circulation
of a story to the effect that Mack had
secured a profitable Japanese con-
tract.
American snuff, which declared an
extra per cent dividend in addition
to the regular 3 per cent, is said to
be contemplating a split-up of it's
stock in 1924, similar to the action
taken by both Lorillard and Liggett
recently.