Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-27
.OLD-T|MERS TAKE
PROFITS IN CRASH
Veteran Wall Street Bankers
and Operators Get Bar
gains on Exchange.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.
clal Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, october 26.-The cagey
old-timers of the stock market made
some money out of the big crash on
the Stock Exchange. Virtually everybody
else lost 1t was the calm and cold
strategist waiting patiently for the
pIulns to fall into his lap who gathered
whatever pickings there were in this
unprecedented slump.
During the uproar of the wild session
on ThulSd this writer called on an
experienced operator who has been IN
the Street for more than 80 years, and
who has learned by experience what
ever technique there is in cashing in
on these periodical disturbances. He
lounged complacently on a worn leather
divan in an old fashioned office hung
with quaint steel engravings and hous-
ing an ancient letter press.
Il have put IN bids for 100 stocks
at from 20 to 80 points under the
market, he said. Il have an idea
am going to get them. There are lot
of good bargains lying around loose and
there is no reason why we shouldn' t
pick them up" This was just about
half an hour before the big break.
Got Most of Them"
Calling at his Office again Friday,
this inquirer found the venerable Specu-
lapsible ship, to go inside of bottle,
a seafarlng trick which he learned in
his youth.
Did you get your stocks?" he was
asked.
Il got most of them" he replied, and
they all look pretty good. 1t seems q
shame to take them at this price, hus
we business men have to be a trifie
cold blooded."
Tins incident is typical of both the
men and the methods, as far as any
one mace any money Out OF this last
big crash in the STOCK market. OF
course, some one bought all these mil
lions OF shares when were unIoaoed
In the frantic wave of selling which
began Wednesday and continued Thurs
day. The buyers were for the most
part bankers, bargain hunters and
shorts. A few big bears who had been
short OF the market for four or five
days were able to cover at big profit.
The average. small trader, even though
he guessed the market correctly, was
unable to get action, as the runaway
| market far outdistanced the laggard
ticker. The small dealer was AFRAID
to play the game through to the end, as
prices went down so last That il he
tried to sell short he would have found
himself selling at the bottom. Nobody
could short the market successfully I'M
less he was on the floor. and the small
Spectator did not have money enough
to go short.
While it is true that some operators
picked up blue chips" stocks at absurd
prices, this, of course, does not repre-
sent an immediate gain. 1t is regarded
as inevitable, however, that there will
be climb in prices in this list of ma or
securities, which the patient cleaners
gathered in the vineyard after it had
been hit by a cyclone.
Losers Are Many.
Those who bought stocks at the bot
tom of the sag were not the Spectators
or investors who were worrying about
margins. There had been frequent and
specific warnings from conservative
banks and the Federal Reserve Board
advising the holders of heavily-mar-
gined accounts to look for a cyclone
cellar. Operators with sufficient cash
reserves were required TO do nothing
more than sit by calmly until the de-
fiation came and then, in their usual
workmanlike fashion, gather up the
pieces.
There is obtainable no possible esti-
mate of the number of persons who
were hit by this crash, or TO what ex-
tent they were damaged. 1t is known
that one rather reckless operator
dropped somewhere around $4,000 900.
Hordes of smaller spectators not only
in New York. but throughout the coun-
try. were completely and finally wiped
out. One of the most surprising pne-
nomena of the break was the fact that
it did not overwhelm any member
house of the exchange, wire house or
bank.
Furthermore, there Is no record of any
great fortune having melted away. How
ever, some wire houses which had car
ried large specializing accounts, and had
ridden with the market, had a close
call. Money was made, or rather sub
stantial values gathered, to put it more
accurately, by individuals and houses
which had realized but little in the big
upswing of the market during the last
two or three years. Losses OF $4,000
to 100000 were numerous.
While professional spectators sui
fered along with the amateurs, 1t was
a younger and newer crop OF profess
SIGNALS, winning their spurs in the
money mart since the war, who took the
brunt of the blows. Judging from the
cllastened demeanor of these fiedglingS
Of finance, they are pretty we'll cured OF
speculation. In fact. it is generally be-
lieved that the crash will have a pro-
foundly salutary effect on future opera
tons, as in the eyes of the conservative
dealers the unbridled enthusiasm OF the
newcomers had carried speculation be-
yond all reasonable bounds. Aside from
this clearing of the air of unrestrained
and ungoverned speculation, there was
but little profit in this disaster for any
one. barring perhaps the few patient
walters who came in at the finish.
A National Affair.
While the concentrated drama OF the
big market nose dive appeared in New
York, the fading of the vanishing mil
lions was distinctly a national affair.
and it was the national psychological
breakdown which brought events to an
issue rather than the cold-blooded
manipulation of few insiders, which
is commonly supposed to account for
debacle like this. Searching for villain
in the plot, one can find neither the
wolf of Wall Street" nor his lair. For
this reason the big week end doings
which have caught the national spot
light are less highly personalized, less
intensified with the Stereotyped melo-
drama than any such happenings In
the past.
There was one rather wild scene
around the automotive post Thursday
afternoon in which two fat flnancters
were Wrangling Historically over some
thing or other 1t might have resulted
in hair-pulling match had it not been
for the fact that both of them were