Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1901 — WAS A “BLACK THURSDAY.” [ARTICLE]

WAS A “BLACK THURSDAY.”

Epitome of the Darkest Day Wall Street Has Ever Known. Black Friday and the panics of ’.73 and ’93 cannot longer be referred to as high water marks of calamity in Wall street history. A new record was made Thursday. It was a day of whirlwinds, wherein fortunes were blown to fragments, where industrial fabrics wero wrecked, where the savings of years were swept away. Northern Pacific was the keynote of the situation. It was the pivot upon which the market swung. Enough money was lost to build fifty Northern Pacific roads/ to girdle the world with transportation lines. To hundreds the panic meant a fortune. To thousands it meant ruin. Early in the day the banks, thoroughly frightened, began to call their loans. The result was a calamity the like of which Wall street has never before known. Men of millions, on the wrong side of the market and unable to get out, were on their knees during the day begging for quarter—for financial help at any price. The banks were besieged, the money lenders were overrun, and Wall street saw the greatest panic of its history. Rich and poor lost half a billion dollars. Prices were knocked downu from 10 to 60 points. The stock exchange was mad. Between 11 o’clock and noon the majority of brokerage houses, if settlement had been compelled, would have failed. Money was loaned at 40 and GO per cent. Northern Pacific stock sold as high as SI,OOO cash for a single share. The Northern Pacific corner was complete. The “shorts” were stricken and utterly routed, and at noon they sent %word to the giants—who cynically continued their contest for Northern Pacific control—that the stock exchange would be insolvent unless mercy were shown. The Harriman-Kuhn-Loeb-Rockefeller faction on one side, and the Morgan-Hill syndicate on the other, stopped fighting only at the moment that they found they might carry themselves down in the ruin. At the end of the day both sides claimed control of the Northern Pacific. The mighty pile of profits having been swept away in a twinkling, panic stared the nation in the face. Then the warring factions announced that they would not demand further delivery from “shorts” of Northern Pacific stock. This declaration and millions loaned by the bankers saved the day. The market rallied in the closing hours, but the day’s end saw thft greatest market the world ever witnessed flattened, weak and almost in <Je»pair. Statesmen Are Caught. Washington, it is said, suffered from the crash in stocks just as much in proportion to her resources as New York or any other city. Hundred* of residents of the national capital, who a few days ago had fortunes on paper, are now practically penniless. They lost not only the paper profits, but their margins and in some instances additional funds which they advanced in the hope of stemming the tide of adversity. Crash Felt in London. The London stock exchange closed one hour after the New York exchange opened, owing to the difference in time. Hence the full force of the Wall street fluctuations was not felt until night, when the cables told of the panic in New York. Still the exchange, despite its suspense over New York’s actiop, had the moat exciting time of ite history, interest in everything save the American stocks having cessed. There was tremendous excitement, but comparatively little business was done. No broker would make prices, nobody would buy.