Show WAll STREET WAS DECEIVED Speculators Had Been Told Steel Trust Would Not Reduce Prices NEWS CAUSED A SHOCK RESULT RE T WAS A DOWNWARD PLUNGE IN VALUES York Feb The light and arid shift shiftIng lug Ing currents of at the speculative sentiment in the stock market veered decidedly In Inthe Inthe the lie direction of discouragement in the course of last week and carried values rapidly downwards The deciding factor was 1 the evidence of languishing trade trado as exemplified especially in the Iron and aDd steel trade The halt In the revival cf ef trade had been p for tor several weeks Past ast and the growing misgivings but the policy polle of or the thu United States Steel corpora lion tion was announced to o 0 ba be bo for the alion of stable conditions by maintenance lance nance of prices based on the stated con conviction conviction that a reduction of prices at this time would fall of effect in reviving de do mand Reports Had Been Denied It fl was WaI asserted that the tho waiting on the formulation of new tariff schedules was wa I the motive for the tha withholding of orders It was urged that such cutting of prices as was being done was by small inde independent independent pendent steel companies and that the fl business thus placed represented so 50 small a part of the total business bus as to be un unrepresentative unrepresentative representative of trade conditions Insist nt reports that a n cut In prices of ot steel ste 1 TV as in contemplation were as persistently denied denle the latest denials coming comin from ac official sources until past the middle of the wk The reassuring effect on speculative sentiment of these asser was confirmed by the determined support accorded the stocks kf of the United States Steel corporation en cn the stock mar ket Repeated bear attacks were resisted and unwieldy short accounts in those I stocks driven to cover coer I IThe The impression thus thu came to be held that the vast centralized control in the steel industry was to be determinedly em emPloyed employed to maintain stable conditions in the industry and to patiently the turn tum in the trade without going through the disturbing effect effet of a cut In prices and a struggle for readjustment on a declining scale Shock to Wall Street It is i necessary to bear in mind these preliminary circumstances in order to un wi understand U toe the foree force o the sudden reversal of policy on the pun pare or of the principal in interests In the steel trade When hen the re realization came to the stock market eje ele inet on Thursday that the depressed con conditions in III the trade were to be recognized by a price reduction and an active effort on the part of ot the leading producer to se secure seure lure cure business from competition the tone Jf f the speculation became The slump In United States Steel itself was the most conspicuous feature of offlie oftie tie flie new turn in affairs It was WIlS that the copper industrials were stable those stocks having heen een declining for some time previously in company with wih the successive reductions going on in the th price of the metal The of the c pp ppl r stocks was furthered also by the statistics of the formed form Copper Copp r Producers association association tion given S en out early earh In the week The Tho dearing up of the foreign situation was of ff important effect on all financial mar markets markets markets The definite promise promie of growing ase raRe in foreign money markets and the of or international questions had bad put a stop to the persistent liquidation of holdings ot t American securities and end tad bad ad given place to some buying in New York on orders from abroad Erie Bond Issue A decidedly favorable impression was e by b the permission accorded by b the I V XI n York publiC service senico servi commission for fori i be le i issuance ua of Erie bonds bords The freedom of the money market from by the various cash h requirements upon Don i it which were being met was con eon siri red a good augury for the o ct Another nothel moderate decrease dEeres in I dip 11 freight cars ca gave some hope of a bet beti 9 i in the traffic situation The spec spar effect of If these factors was all swept aside by b the he later consideration of he The trade outlook and the realization that i scramble was is in prospect among steel stee producers which might Involve serious to earning r powers It Is noticeable ItI that th disorder Into which tl Ue e took toek market was thrown produced but slight lIght effect on the bond market |