Evening star., 1924-11-20
RAILROAD AND OIL
SHARES LEAD RISE
Another Day of Enormous
Trading and Many New
High Marks.
by STUART p. WEST.
Special Dispatcl, 10 The Star.

bN STU Ahf " "ESIs
Special Disratcl, 10 The Star.
NEW YORK, November 20.-The
great activity on the stock exchange
today centered in the medium and
low-priced rails. number of which
rose violently to much the highest
levels of the year.
Speculation on prospective railway
consultations involving the com
panios whose stocks were in heavie 4
demand was again the keynote of
the dealings. Advances OF 2, 3, 4 and
more points were common in this
group. Meanwhile a large list of
special moves were in progress,
carrying many shares of this class to
flesh tops for the year.
The street is influenced by the
Van Swearingen merger and the fact
that Erie common share owners were
offered what is the equivalent to
some 10 points more than the stock
had long been selling for. The
thought that a similar increase over
market quotations might be in pros
rect for other low-priced rails was
back of the big rise in stocks like
kan"as CITY Southern, NJ, X. & T.
and Chicago Great Western preferred.
Missouri, Pacific Jumps.
The jump in Missouri Pacific stocks
was not due SO much to consolida-
tion plans as to the belief that, with
th" Improvement in earnings under
the new regime, the refunding of
back dividends on the preferred and
the inauguration of regular dividends
is a question of only a short time.
New Haven sold above 80 again on
large transactions. Seaboard Air
Line common was up points. There
was sharp upbidding in Wheeling
and Lake Erie preferred, and heavy
trading in the common stock as it
crossed IS. Western Pacific made
new high and so did Ontario and
Western The entire motive for the
advance in kanEas City Southern was
the possibility OF the road being
taken over into a larger system.
Wall street Features.
The conspicuous strength in num-
Der of the low and medium priced
rails no doubt has attracted a large
public following. but the observa-
tion has been made that the really
important buying in these stocks
has been done by the so-called in
siders." They have sensed the pos
sibilities of various mergers, and are
responsible for the great demand for
the securities of the roads concerned.
Petroleum has coincided with certain
unfavorable facts regarding Phillips
Petroleum'S operations. These are in
effect that over a period of six months
the company's oklahoma production,
in spite of the drilling in OF approXi
mately 100 wells, has yielded no ma
terial increase in output. In fact.
Phillips production in the third quar-
ter fell to 1.115.195 barrels, as against
2,974,415 in the second quarter. Many
other oil companies made favora BILE
showing in production in the third
as against the second quarter, figures
show.
An announcement is expected next
Monday of an increase in the divi-
dend on North American common
from the current S2.40 annually to So,
or perhaps $3.50. The stock has had
sharp advance in the recent trad
ing in anticipation of such an in
crease.
Traders Turn to Oil shares.
Regarding the oil situation the tes-
timony on the face of things seems
to be contradictory. One recognized
source was claiming a further reduc-
tion in the output of crude oil. An
other was estimating, on the basis of
the latest weekly figures, that pro-
duction had gone up slightly. The
best opinion was, however, that the
statistical position had been slowly
strengthened, and this was plainly
the view taken in the stock market
of the day. Oil shares, which had
heep dragging behind ,raaly