The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-22
FEW EFFORTS ID. RECONCILE STOCK
 MARKET ID NE EWS
Professionals Have Been In Charge, With Various
 Groups Contending
By WALTER B. BROWN Editor New York Commercial nNnacA Wire fn The Are-HerRIdl

NEW YORK, Sept. 21.--stcck mar ket opera tions have been so clearly out of line with general news de- Velopments that there has been little effort to reconcile them., It has been a professional market all along, with various groups striving to take ad- vantage of the technical conditions of the moment. On the constructive side there has been an effort to re- store confidence in values, and to induce the public to come back into the market by stimulating an in- terest in the rail stocks, with New York Central as a rallying point. This could we'll be done because this gilt-edged stock as well as others of it's class is selling below its in- trinsic worth.
 oa the bear side the tils have been the center of attack, which, ac- cording to Chairman Sinclair, has been carried to ridiculous extremes. Earlier in the week Chairman Do- heny of the Pan-Am erican Interests stated that the peak of California production had not yet been reached, but Mir. Sinclair insists that the flusH has been passed. and is sup poorted in his view by Chairman $. A. Guiberson, Jr., of the oil pro rating committee of the Southern California oil producers. Mir. Guiber- son said that the early estimates of his eommittee's engineers fixed Sep tember as the month in which peak production for the oil fields would como, but it now appears that the peak of potential production was passed in July or early August, He admits, however. that any estimates that can be made are largely guesses. and of many of these guesses 1t may be said the wish is father to the thought.
 Upxdts All Calculations
 Tile production of oil in California has upset all previous calculations by the best experts that could be ob- tained There is no more use in try ing to estimate what oil production willy be in California or any other field. than there is to estimate the size of next years wheat crop. One fact seems to be pretty clearly es- tablished, and that is. that we need, not fear of an exhaustion of our oil fields within the time of any of us now living, or the generation to fol- low. Yet within the past year or, have been made for the storage of. oil on the theory of inadequate pro- duction. The present demoraliZation' in the oil industry is only temporary because, as Mir. Sinclair points out. in the course of time this situation
 
 as to the commodity itself and the stocks of the companies engaged in it's production will advance.
 The steel situation is somewhat difficult to analyze. The moderate slump, from which the industry is beginning to emerge, fig only in a moderate degree based upon slow ing down of construction work. The truth is that during the period of intense activity consumers antici- pated their requiremets to a mod crate degree and many of them will be able to continue operations for perhaps several months without re- plenishing.
 Nevertheless August bookings ex-. ceeded July by about 8 per cent and thus far in September there has been a substantial increase over August
 Hope has not been abandoned of reviving public interest in the stock market drought the medium of the. railroads, the shares of which have shown relatively greater strength than the industrials throughout the week. If it were not far the gener- ally depressed feeling that pervades the stock market, there would be lit- tie difficulty in arousing some in- 'ereSt in them.