Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1907 — ON VERGE OF A PANIC. [ARTICLE]

ON VERGE OF A PANIC.

BIG SLUMP IN STOCKS JARS WALL STREET. Moat Frantic Liquidation in Years, He.oldnj in a *500,000,000 Loaa, Cause* Consternation Among Biq Bankers and Railway Magnatft. ———l ’ ; J—— -T- ----- T f— T For several hours Wednesday Wall street was so close to a panic’ that tbs thousands who thronged the brokers' offices, cases and other places between the hourS of 10 and 3 expected that the crash would come any moment and that the wild secnes enacted in the great panic day of May 9, 1901, would be repeated. That there was no actual panic was due almost wholly to the fact that the public, which speculates on margins, lias been virtually out of stocks for three months and the game is almost entirely-confined to professionals; who are usually .able to werither such storms. At one time, however, there were rumors that several of the big houses which trade on their own account were in a'critical position, but when the settlement hour had passed it Was known they had‘been able to pull through. Wall street charges the day’s demoralization to the attitude of the administration toward the great railroads of the country ami some iiersofis discerned in it an object lesson for President Roosevelt. A New York correspondent says, however, that most judges of the situation saw in a complete absence.of public buying, even at the bargain prices which now prevail, the widespread disgust wffli the stock-jobbing methods of those who control the great railroads of the country, the stock-wa-tering processes of which they have been guilty, the general indifference on. their part to the rights and interests of the public and the'defiance by the corporations of laws designed to regulate and control them. It has been years since the public has failed to respond to the low range of prices which was established by Wednesday’s buying. The panic was not averted by outside buying. Whatever support there was came from the banking interests, who Interposed their influence to prevent complete disorder. The crash was by far the worst sihee the Northern Pacific, scare. It was much more radical, for instance, than either of the two recent big market breaks, and it was more significant because. succeeding a decline of about $600,000,000 In market values from the high of last year, its effect is cumulative. The entire situation is engaging the attention of the President and his Cabinet, the Governors and Legislatures of States and money kings all over tlie country. President Roosevelt permitted it to become officially known that he will maintain the attitude he has assumed regarding the railroad interests. To use his own expression, he will “stand pat." This applies both to anti-trust laws and the Hepburn WIL Expected action by Secretary Cortel-

you .us -Um* Treasury I depart menu to stem the tide, of decline gave a ray of hope to the street before the opening Thursday. The Secretary announced that owing to the stringency in the money market the $30,000,000 of government funds, deposited with the banks last September. would not be recalled at once, as had been intended. Panicky conditions of Wednesday in Wall street were repeated’ Thursday, lower |>oiutA tbrouglmut the list were reached, and two failures were reported in London.