Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-13
OLD-T|MERS TAKE
HELM ON EXCHANGE
Era of Youth in Big Business
Followed by Calmer
Atmosphere.
By LEMUEL F. PARTON.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, November 1S.--A year
ago today, with the crowd on the Stock
Exchange milling around like herd of
wild mavericks, a representative Of ,.
H. Holmes & Co. quietly showed in en-
order for 100000 shares of Standard
Oil of New Jersey at So 1t was wliie-
pered around the exchange that the
Rockefellers had put In this order. The
stock had reached so, with only 1900
shares sold at this price.
There were no takers of the l.0O0,-
000-share bid. The stock closed &C
503k, of ass. The danger was over.
At that particular instant the great re-
ceSsion became an orderly retreat In
stead of rout and riot Excited WIS.,
itors in the gallery may not have
known 1t. but they were In on some
big historical doings.
Little Excitement Now.
Today there were few visitors In the
gallery. AS Standard Oil of New Jer-
Sey logged along just above SO after
falling TO 40 earlier in the week, deal
ers yawned and asked their mater
whether they had heard the one about
the strong man and the margin clerk
There was O group In the lounge swaps
ping yarns Neither today nor at anY
time in the last few weeks of the lorf
sag has there been IN S o S for til
bankers, no large-bole financiers putt
ting in frantic telephone calls to Wash.
ington. Nature takes its course.
According to comparative totals oil
market values of all stocks on the ex-
change, the period of little more than
year since the big SLUMP has win
moved about $34 ,642, 766, 237 out of this
particular accumulation of the national
wealth, with the Curb Exchange ac-
counting for few billions more. What
ever melodrama was due or incidental
in this process was enacted all at once,
to be replaced on the boards today with
brand of realism which discloses the
once outmoded law of supply and de-
mand again on the job.
On the street, in brokers' Offices, in all
the gathering places in and around the
Nations Bourse, there is none of the
climatic intensity which marked the
moment of the Rockefeller bid Board
rooms, jammed a year ago with excited
bankers, bakers boarding house keepers,
stenographers, housewives, millionaires
and clerks, are as calm as Lake Placid
on moonlight night A year ago today
1t was zero hour on the exchange. Now
it is just one more day in the trenches.
Youth in Big Business.
During the last few years the average
age of members of the Stock Exchange
has been lowered by about 10 years.
The era of runaway finance was the era
of youth in big business. Not only on
the exchange, but in brokers' firms,
banks and industry, youngsters scarcely
dry behind the ears were sitting in on
big deals. Stock Exchange seats were
selling for around $500, 900 in the boom
days, and with the increase in the ex-
change membership the youngsters
piled in.
Today seats are around $225, 900. The
hedgings are still there, but they are
piping down. When the Bourbon was
pressing hard they let Did Benvenuto
Cellini out of jail in the Castle Angelo
to take pot shot at him with an old
fashioned cannon. Hence It is the olC-
timers who are running things now-off-
stage, more or less, and not saying much,
put ready to summon another Rockefel-
Ter if they have to.
The Street doesn't seem to be gloomy
about all this There have been no
really disastrous failures since the day
OF the big skid. Veterans Of the market
seem glad that all the fuss and hula
palloo Is over with. Talking as profess
SIGNALS. they say it was the amateurs
who were rocking the boat and they are
glad they are gone. If there is no wild
excitement, similarly there Is no deep
pesSimiSm.
(copyright. 1860