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Show STOCK MARKETS ARE STILL ! SLUGGISH AND UNSETTLED! j Liquidation Has Not Run Its Complete Course;! Short Selling Must Be Curbed; Bond Output Decreases; Petroleum. By W. S. COUSINS, Editor Tte American Bonker. NEW TOPK. Xov. in The open-, ing" of the. stock markets for the j new week brought no apparent signs of relief from tiie heavy j i pressure hieh has been so promi- ! r.ent in every division of the market in j recent week. While many of the "wise ones" have attempted to explain the violent vio-lent drop In security values as the effect of the defeat of Italians, it is evident the real reason for tiie timidity on the part of the trading public lies far deeper. The American people are slowly hut surely awakening to -the fact that this nation ha.-s embarked upon a, lonq and desperate struggle whhh will reouire an outlay of men and money on n larcer scie than in any similar pro.je-'i in the history of the world. As was pointed out by the head of one of the iarcest Wall street banking houses last week, if the American peoplo hac he en sufferinc from the delusion' thai they can run this war as a side is- sue. it is time ihey wore waking up. The ; only element in the situation which should properly give ground for surprise Is that i iiJs realisation has been so lone in taking root. Far sipnted and intelligent men of affairs have realized tullv for months just what war mean: and what ll was likely I to mean 10 tlie. Pulled States. It was the! belief, however, of even the most experienced experi-enced nniges of conditions that the mar- j kcts had adequately discounted every i ultimate possibility in this respect, since it was nowhere fully realized that the J public miikl was still in such a Mate of Instability as to be so violentl- affected by adverse war news as tne nsnlt of the Italian now s proved to be the case. Corporation War Taxes. In the matter of war cost, some laxce figures r.re now being talked of, not only in the Wall street district, but in 0ff1ci.1l Washington itsi-lf. With an appropriation jat present of about 'K'.Ov'.'', it is not Improbable that our war chest, up to the end of IPlSs may run up to S.iiivi-OO'VO'V. S.iiivi-OO'VO'V. Whatever money Is not contributed con-tributed voluntarily 10 special funds, or loaned through, t he purchase of Libert y iKmds, must be taken by the instrumentality instrumen-tality of tti Nation. The report of t he Steel corporation last week, ma kins p.ih-lic p.ih-lic the fa that out of net quarterly earnings of ShU'Tt.Tv:. the sum of .;":,"' 1C. or MS per cent, had to b" set : aside as a war tax. is indicative of the heavy strain to whi- h some of our giant eotporarions will be subjected in tiie matter mat-ter of war financing. On a lunite-d scale the burden of the war must he handed pro rata down to eery citizen, no matter how hunmle his station, and if secessary the government can take everything a man has in order to eQuip, feed and maintain the armies wh;. h it may be necessary to put together. to-gether. Peace Talk Efl'ect. There Is no wav bv which any American Ameri-can ei tizen ca.n escape pa ying ids shai e j of war costs, either through lending to the government or through taxation, or both. It is because the publh- Is apparently ap-parently lust wakinc up to thi iiu-s- apabie conclusion and has not yet :hi'.l grasred the offset tititr and optintis.ic e! -iv.ents In the situation from a financial viewpoint tiiat every event that ;-ee:i:s to point toward a prolongation of tlie why h.is a deprssin(T effect upon ths stci-k markets. I'Yom the point of view of ihose who s-e o-.i'if this side of the picture it Is indubitably true, as has frequently ben siatf, that fa.ce 1a now h. bull arvu-niT.t. arvu-niT.t. If an honorable peace . ould cop.-'luded cop.-'luded in the n-ar future the n;.tion's business would he qui. kly relieved from the burden of war taxation and the country coun-try wo '.3 Id find 1 1 soli better cuuippol Jha.n ever tor the giga ntic task of world rebuilding re-building that must lw.gin as s"-on r- the present roccs5 of world des ; ru.-t ion Is terminated. But there is no pae in high.t. Each week's -elctpmenis ni.tke !t more and more dear that we are in 1 for a longer war than all but tlie most far-sighted anticipated last spring. War for several years to omc Is mm h mor likely to be the ruling factor in business affairs than any tangible prospect of early peace. Put while the count ry is facing these grave problems, it is Imperative that there be a 11 nil v of action, mid that no discordant dis-cordant elements be permitted lo work prejudicial to the public Interest. One of the moM harmful influences in the stock market is tlie exepssivej short selling which lias been indulged in by the unscrupulous unscru-pulous heir element, and has been largely responsihle for the severe losses which trader? have sustained in recent weeks. There are certain critics of short selling who are never willing to admit that such a process has any legit i ma te function In stock exchange transactions, and is therefore there-fore to be condemned and. if possible, prohibited. This view is not a logical one. since under normal conditions the battle between the longs Pnd the shorts is one of th studying influences which keen the mark-1 from a "runaway' course one wav or the ot her. In time of national calamity or crisis, how ever, when values are receding and margin accounts daily being wiped out : when military reports 3re disturbing and the nncertaintv of the hardens to be imposed im-posed upon business leads to depression In iill lines of financial transactions, tiie public, should be afforded a little more than ordinary ordi-nary protection acainst the operations of tlie" creedv short sellers, whos artificial jugcllng of prices makes the whole market mar-ket unsaf" for anybody and everybody. That there is a great need of a ehk being put upon hear campaigns at the present time cues without saying. It is honed that the stock exchange governors wlJI hn wise, enough to do their regulating regulat-ing from within, ard not wait for compulsory com-pulsory regulation from the outside. Situation as io Oil. rvimrarv to general expectations, no official of-ficial announcement has yet hren forthcoming forth-coming from WHshingion. relative to price fixing" or reneral regulation of the oil Isunnly. It is understood that the federal j trade commission is nt present working : out a plan similar to that which has hen ontraiie !n the s'.ecl trade- Every branch of the oil trade, mciudiufir the producing, refining, marketing and Jobbing, has loyal v co-operated with the government and its allips in the matter of insuring supplies of peiroleum and products, and It is apparent ap-parent that ee-rything possible is hcnz don"1 to st inn late new prod u-t ion. F.x-per:. F.x-per:. arc unanimously of the opinion tout the oil tr-de in war thue will be mo- active than under normal conditions. Thus w hen the prf s nt nne.as.nf-f-s caused by st nera.1 maikct londifons has been ehrr-irired ehrr-irired it is reasonab'e to assume tiiat od securities w ill hold an exceptionally strong posiron. , . ,. Siatis'i.-s show that curing the monta of October fort-eight new c 11 and gas companies, with aggregate capital in excels ex-cels of J'.iVi.h'-i'.'K'o were organised in the T'nlted 5tate. Pir. th ltinn'.ng o' th -ear oil companies have ben for-ned wi'h a capital stock In the. huge tc'al of JI.riria."iM fYnm these fir-::re' fir-::re' it will be yffP that there Is a broadening broad-ening interegt in the petroleum industry Develop Rich Fields. Esre -ialiy is this true In what is known the "inderenden: oil compaJiies.," many cf which have ben eicnallv successful in dovetopinc the rich fields of the wst and middle Rf.si. The success of the Glenroci. Oil cnmj'any Is of parricnlar interest "-e-taus of the prominence of the New York ar.ital.rts ho are back of the enterprise With an authorized capital of $ 1 ft.iVii.ft-i.i. of which Jv.0'"tM.'-"'t is outstanding, and with no bonded Indebtedness the C.len-rock C.len-rock OH company was formed to smalg-a-tf. ti;o laduv- Independent Wl-onung ;cir-pa n1ev The company now owns or controls !mVi acres In such rich pi oven oil pro luring districts as P g Muddy, F'k K..sin, l.'?t Soldier, I My (."reek. Tilot po ; te. is drilling operations are conduced con-duced in part b ti.e Ohii (. d company, anl the M Ul i Re gili lug compan . and dihiT production Is now at the rate of .v P.iricK, 1nr l-nhng thirteen complete wells in Pilot Putt"" f'.eld. wnh daily ca-picllv ca-picllv of M-h barrels. IJOfi barrels in Pig Mudiiv, l' O barrels in I 'ry Cr-ek and l'-1 in tvk r.isin. According to latent dU-IMtdic.i dU-IMtdic.i a black oil depository has oen io. a t d in ha V.Mie dome, near iisper. here a t w o - -r lie pipe line wll I b rn-Mnir'fii. rn-Mnir'fii. Piack oil is now in bis deman 1 as n fuel oil. The output of bonds, notes and stotK by American radix a- and industrial or-poraifnit.-- in (ciober amounted to only tV-''.S.i"'i" arcoiding to the regular compilation com-pilation of the- Journal of I'on inerce. This i.m i ho smaili st montldv total tn quite a while, and conirres with Jl hV In ortoper a year ato. Tlie Immediate or- .1 .-ion for t li n showing Is the tact tha t 'he second I.ibeily hn campaign clalmM the atteiiiion of Kankmg tntereis and cIl;-cntn' s of Investment hnu-w-s during dur-ing a gix'd part of the pact month almost T'i t h a rxrlusmn of e-ve t 1 i ,lng eie, H r-,1 it is ilu to their unbending oft oris thll tt hug go.-rnm. nt bond Ismi was so lug?-Iv lug?-Iv o er'-ulv-c'-li-ed. Thl. 1 mipied with the hi -hi intc re t ml'M n e ailing for money, a'r.d the unsa nsfactory condl l ions snr-ronn snr-ronn ling the n.. irked for hlch grnde Inv-fst-n.riit Ffriuihi'j.. 1 r. 11 do U plain (hat t h Mine was not pmpi I iou f(r corpora t ions to cany mi vxteiihc boriowiiic olxra-I olxra-I tions. I -- |