The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-09-20
CONTINUED from Page One,

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"Of course, there is a traditional
theory that the stock market is
sensitive barometer of future business
conditions. A lot of money has beer
spent carefully fostering that idea OF
the public. The same goes for grain
speculation. 1t is supposed to be goot
for farmers. Why, the farmers have
never been able to find out. Well, right
now, there are lot of little investors
in the stock market who want tc
know if the market, in some mysteri
GUS and magic way, is telling them
what to expect in the months ahead
OF course, when you want to sell some
stock in Wall Street, that stock is
worth exactly what the market says
it is worth at that given moment-no
more or no less. Like other merchan-
disc, it is only what the buyer will
pay. But stock is different from other
merchandise. After all, it is only a
piece of paper. 1t represents, of course,
share in factory, the product it
makes and the relationship of that
product to other similar products, how
much profit the factory is making,
and what it looks like it will be max
ing.
But, here is the thing to remember
about the stock market A stock mark
ct is not the cause of prosperity or de-
preston. IL is the result. It's the pick
ings. We do not have prosperity be-
cause stocks go up, but stocks go up
because we have prosperity But it is
funny kind of prosperity. It is not
prosperity of people, of jobs, of homes
and schools and churches. 1t is a pros
perity of particular kind of profit.
AS long as the pickings are good and
profits big for the chosen few, that is
supposed TO be prosperity in the stock
market. But the only trouble with this
kind of prosperity is that it never
lasts. It is artificial.
Bust Worries Wall Street
when jobs get few, people run low
on money and buying slows up, you
end up with a depression. The causes
are already there and the stock mark
ct takes the hint. Last weeks decline
was steep one-steep as the one
which signaled the collapse of the last
Bull Market in 1937-almost as sharp
as the break of 1929. This is not any
crack-pot theorizing Last August
Business Week" magazine predicted
he tumble. Here is part of a state
nent from the August 81 issue of
Business Week" magazine: We
luote; wall Street shows little con-
idence in the outlook for sustained
or" get this, Eat least for
corporation profits. We may
lave our boom but the smart money
obviously does not count on it to last
'ery long, and the bust really has
Vail Street worried" That is the end |
# the quotation. {
Some time ago, we were told by the I
National Association of Manufacture /
rs that if we killed OPA and had in {
lation, we would get production !
DING. Well, it has been going. The g
alue of goods inventories they are i
alled) that are held by manufacture 7
rs alone went up more than 900 mil /
ion dollars in July The value of these n
upplies hit an all-time high of nearly L
s billion dollars. But instead of pros /
Gritty, we find Wall Street is worried !
here will not be period of Sustain l
d corporation profits" ahead for big !
usiness. That is the kind of master
linding that wants free and easy )
heeling-individua free wheeling
sort of economic piracy to rule That q
the kind of masterminding that 5
ludders at all planning as un-Ameri- a
an. That gold-bricks the farmer and $
indbags labor
Grain Price May Drop
Now, maybe you have been hear
lg so much about what the stock
arket has been doing that you
Used a very important announce
ent by the government The Depart
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