MILLIONAIRES' PANIC.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10957, 27 April 1907, Page 6 (Supplement)

MILLIONAIRES' PANIC.

RECORD SELLING OF STOCK TO FIND READY MONEY.

PRICES COLLAPSE.

NEW YORK, -March 14. A millionaires' panic prevailed m Wall street to-day, and the scenes which en- ,. sfried . ecjipsed anything witnessed for many years pa?t. ' . - For months past ihe great railway magnates, whose millions can only, be estimated.by the railways they control, liave been skilfully arid persistently sending up the price qf stocks, until limits have b.een reached far m advance of the intrinsic values of the various stocks. Thei.i'object was to unload their holdings on the general public at high prices, and had it not been, for the fact that trade is iri such... an exceptionally booming condition that all .loose . money has been invested m it,, the manoeuvre, would no doubt have succeeded,* as it has done m the past. ..-.;."•; . But this, time the public _ liave held aloof almost unanimous ly, '.and m order to . keep prices at their high level, the m'agriates have had to buy large quantities of stock. In fact, tlie tallies luive been turned. Listead of the public- buyin from the millionaires, the millionaires have been the purchasers. , At last . the time for readjustment has come. The extreme stringency of . the money market and the falling due of a huniber of very large payments combined, haye . forced" on the millionaires the necessity of • raising ready moriey. To do this they liave had to sell out their stock, and it came to a struggle between them as to who should lose the least. BATTLE!. OF GIANTS. It has, indeed, been a battle of financial Titans— such a battle as under different conditions would have caused widespread disaster throughout tlie country. As it is, ; it is only ,the millionaires w-io\ have suffered, for there has been no signs at all of public participation m the loss. _ Such a jettisoning of 6-6clc as has taken place has, not been equalled since the memorable days of tlie panic of 1884. A total of 2,522,000 shares, have changed hands, which is. believed to surpass anything known on the: Exchange since the Northern Pacific panic of 1901. Many of the stocks whicli have, boomed so enormously receritly suffered- very heavy loss. The brokers, especially those who do tlie business of the great railway mag-. riateS^ were bombarded with selling orders. Miny of, them utterly lost their heads m their endeavor to sell stock. The margin between the buyers and the sellers was. often as much us twenty and thirty points. Central of New Jersey, for instance, was being offered at 190, while the highest bid which could be obtained was 160. ' It was practically impossible to keep pace with the fall m prices, ahd many bargains involving hundreds of thousands I of. pounds were made on guess work and at many points either above or below the ruling price of the moment. Wild rumors were m constant circulation on the floor of the House, Mr Harriman heing the central figure m most of them. Disorderly rushes from- one part of the .. Exchange to another were made every few moments, as groups of brokers would dash towards some person supposed to have special information regarding the rumor of the moment. RIOT ON 'CHANGE. - Dozens of. dealers and brokers were to be seen with their 1 hats smashed m and their coats lorn to shreds, and some empluitically declared that the day's experience was the roughest ever known on 'Change. Philadelphia and Reading shares, which scored the greatest fall yesterday, .igain led the slump, m which practically every class of share on the market, even those usually regarded- as gilt-edged, parliciSated. Before the day had closed over a ozen different classes of stock had fallen from twelve to twenty points, wliile losses from six to ten points were common. The scene when the chairman's hammer fell at the close was unrivalled. There was a wild yell, and brokers, dealers, and their assistants joined m a tumultuous waving of liats and cheering. Similar scenes have occurred at Boston and P.iiladelphia, where selling orders larger than for years past were carried out at the bidding of millionaire clients. .. To relieve the situation the banks were lending money at 10 per cent., and before the day closed call money for day renewals rose io as much as 25 per .cent.