Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-04
by EDWARD HI. COLLINS.

TT is o'clock of a sultry August
morning. Behind the locked
doors of a Government building
i IN Washington seven men bend
increasingly over rows of figures.
The windows of the room in which
they work are tightly. closed, the
shades are drawn q nd sealed. All tele-
phones communicating with the build
ing have been disconnected. Even the
buzzers have been placed temporarily
out of commission.
Guards stand at attention at the
doors and in the Railways. No per-
son, from the moment these seven
men start their work, is permitted to
leave the building.
These seven men, whose work is
guarded SO secretly. are the members
of the Crop Reporting Board. making
their estimate of Americas cotton
crop Tor the woodland Wall Street.
All through the early morning they
have been working over their columns
of figures-fgures that tell nothing of
the general condition of the cotton
crop until they have been assembled.
When their work is done and the re-
port is completed, mimeographed
copies are taken to the reporters room
just before IL o'clock Washington
time. or noon New York daylight-sav-
ing time.
Down the center of this room runs
chalk line. Along the two sides of the
room are rows of telephones. On a
stand before each telephone a copy
of the report is placed, face down.
A few minutes before IL O'Clock the
reporters take their places along the
chalk line. Then, just as the minute
hand jumps to the hour, member of
the board gives the signal and the
men dart for their chosen telephones,
each racing to get the story to his
paper frs.
The Governments advance predic-
ton of the size of any of our ma jor
crops may seem dull reading to the
loiterer on Main street. To Wall
Street it is often INT. Fortunes are
made or lost in an hour by those who
have guessed it correctly in advance
or failed to do so. Hence the extraor.
binary preca utions to prevent leaks"
That this method of releasing the
. crop figures is virtually leakproof was
amply demonstrated last month. when
the Crop Reporting Board issued its
first estimate OF the year on the 1927
cotton crop. The trade" had placed
it's own estimate at around $500 900
bales, and looked for an estimate of
about that amount from the Govern
ment. But the latter showed only
13,500,0 900 bates. A wild orgy of buy
ing ensued which in two sessions car
ried the price of cotton up SIS bale.
Not the slightest hint of any substan
tial speculation for the rise had been
evidenced previous to The publication
OF the figures.
The money importance of Wall
Stree; news and the absolute necessity
OF preventing any hiatus between the
':breaking" OF the news and its publ
cation have combined inevitably at
times to create suspicion OF leaks and
charges OF the misuse of information,
while At other times the human equa-
ton mas asserted itself in the form of
CafelcssncsS, inadevertence and sheer
stupidity. Human frailty of one kind
or another has written it's record large
in dollar signs in the annals of Wall
street, where news gathering is hair.
trigger profession loaded with dyna::
mite.
nNE Of the classic examples of the
~ effect of human fallibility on the
stock market was that of the famous
"stock dividend decision" by the
United States Supreme Court March
9, 1920. No decision by the highest
court in years, perhaps, had been
awaited in Wall street with such in
tense interest. The case, that of Nc
Comber VS.. Eisner, involved the then
disputed question of the taxability of
stock dividends. Should the court
have found that such dividends were
taxable, it would have meant that mil
lions of equity behind the stocks of
leading industrial corporations would
lsa n ha 10 he
naent.
on the other hand, any number of
stocks were marking time" in the
hope of "A favorable ruling which, 1t
was believed, would have meant the
Ceclara ton Of share dividends.
The Supreme Court hands down its
findings at noon on Monday, and on
tie Monday in question Wall Street.
S1Hvlnced THAI ruling would be made