Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-24
Everybody's
Business
The Spectacle of Rising
Prices IN a Free Secur'-
res Market Gives RISE
to the Hope That Better
Business Is on the Way.
BY DIR. MAX wINKLER.

Special Dispatch to The star.
NEW YORK, September 24.-Open-
ing of the London Stock Exchange, with
quotations either Arm or appreciably
higher; marked advance In Paris,
the reopening of the Brussels and
Amsterdam markets, q substantial rise
In commodities, notably cotton, and
the favorable reception accorded in
Wall Street to, the wage cut by the
Steel Corporation, had most sanitary
effect upon the New York securities
market.
The almost spectacular advance in
railroad shares was attributed partly
to belief that favorable decision may
be handed down soon In regard to the
increase In freight rates and partly to
the fact that many shares had reached
absurdly low levels, which invited
genuine buying on rather large scale.
The improvement in prices in gen.
eral is the more significant because of
the announcement by the Stock Ex-
change that the recent ruling pro-
hibiting short selling had been re-
scinded.
Rising prices cannot, therefore, be
attributed entirely to artificial meth
DDS, but took place, 90 very ap-
probable extent, in free market. To
be sure. fundamentals have not under
gone any material change as yet, SO
that the impressive Improvement in
prices may not be warranted entirely
by improvement in business.
It Is, however. not impossible that
better business conditions will follow,
rather than precede, better sentiment
and that we may well have case of
the tail wagging the dog. rather than
one of the dog wagging the tail.
Giannini's Career.
The meteoric rise OF Amadeo Giannini
from Office boy In a wholesale commits
sion house in San Francisco at the age
largest financial institutions, with rami-
f1cations in the United States from
Maine to California and abroad as well,
seems to have come to an end.
1t was In the course of the panic of
1907 that Mr.. Giannini attracted Ma
tion-wide attention by the offering Of
his establishment to pay gold, while
ether institutions were forced to sus-
pend payments. And it is in the course
of another panic, almost quarter of
century later, that he is obliged to
step out.
The management of Transamerica
Corporation, one of the largest invest
ment trusts formed in the days of the
great boom some three years ago, will
henceforth be in the hands OF Lee, Hig-
ginson a. Co, and control is expected
to be relinquished of its banking az
filiates.
According to Elisha Walker, who re-
mains identified with the institution,
the proposed change will be adVan-
tageous to stockholders.
Wage Reduction.
Careful analysis of the 10 per cent
wage reduction reveals that, based upon
purchasing power of the dollar-and
the dollar as such has no significance
except for what it can buy-the en-
ployes of the Steel Corporation are still
substantially ahead of 1926.
1t is obvious that with the industry in
the throes of depression and with profits
showing shrinkage despite savings and
economies maintenance of wages at a
scale maintained during boom period
Is economically unsound.
The fact that the steel management
has adhered to 1t so long Is probably
attributable to the feeling which the
board may have had to the effect that
business would change fer the better