Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1907 — DROP IN STOCK PRICES. [ARTICLE]

DROP IN STOCK PRICES.

The Farmer I* Gettln* VUcber M< (he Speculator Poorer. Wheat and corn are going op and stocks are going doWn, writes William B. Curtis in the Chicago Record-Herald. The farmer is getting richer and the speculator poorer—which many people will agree is in the line of eternal justice. Stocks are lower now than tpey have been for several years. They ere now down practically where they were at the time of McKinley’s election, when “The Era of Prosperity” set in. The decline has been general, affecting almost everything in the list of securities available to the public, and Wall street statisticians declare that the total shrinkage amounts to at least $3,500,000,000. But the value of the property these stocks represent, and their earning capacity has not been impaired. In most cases the dividends will "not be affected; the shrinkage only represents water that has been squeezed out and the speculators are practically the only sufferers. The permanent investor who has locked ityis certificates up in a tin box and put theta away in the safe deposit Vault Is not likely to suffer from the present shrinkage. His property Is worth just as much as it ever was, but the certificates no longer have the fictitious value given them by the gamblers. —; • The slump is by no means confined to New York or to American securities. It, has been general all over the world. British, French, German, Italian, Indian and South American shares have ’ suffered a marked decline, althoughxiujao case has it been so sharp as may be seen in the quotations of American industrials. London and Northwestern railroad stock has dropped twenty-two points, shares in the copper mines of Spain have fallen twentyfour points, those of the Great Eastern railway of England are twenty points lower. than they were at the beginning of this year. British consols have dropped 6 per cent; Japanese, Chinese, Russian, South African, Egyptian and Indian railway seourities and government bonds have all fallen off from 3 to 20 per cent, while South African mining stocks are 27 per cent below the quotations for Jan. 2, 1907. French railway and bank stocks have sympathized with the general depression and in Germany the same conditions prevail. The stock of the Bank of 'France and the Credit Lyonnais of Paris, 'Which are among the strong institutions in the world, sympathize with less valuable securities and show a decline of several ser cent Therefore American Investors should not feel at all uneasy, but should congratulate themselves that by this universal shrinkage -they have escaped the perils of a local panic.