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Show H ' POLITICAL SITUATION ABROAD AFFECTS STOCKS. fl (While soiling pressure did not develop on an exceptionally active ac-tive scale. Hie price level of stock exchange securities early this week reflected two influences that for a time received unfavorable inter-1 inter-1 J pretation. The most potent of these, which was subsequently great- H Jy modified, was the continued dry weather, accompanied by intense B heat, in important areas of the corn bell. The second was the po- B litical situation abroad, which became so acute as to almost merit B the designation of a crisis in the relations between Franco and Gcr- B many over the Moroccan situation. In addition, the Balkan ghost r again appeared, this time as a result of Russia's precipitate action in massing troops., which Turkey regarded as an unfriendly act. ruder these circumstances it was not unnatural that there should have been ,a .check upon tho demand for securities at home, while at the same time the decline in quotations on the London and continental exchanges naturally exercised a sympathetic influence on this side. So far as the Moroccan incident is concerned it is apt to be largely overrated In accordance with the terms of the Alge-ciras Alge-ciras agreement of two years ago. France has been performing a duly then imposed of preserving order In response to a specific demand de-mand of the sultan for protection against the tribesmen, it sent a mihtary'fprcc as faVas tiel outskirts of Fez. Germany, after protesting protest-ing the military demonstration on 'the ground that it had' an ulterior import, finally added force to her protest by sending i warship to Agadir, presumably as a significant, effective and final protest. Both the German people and the French arc by nature so highly excitable ex-citable and sentimental that it is not surprising, therefore, that so much more should be heard of the possibilities of the present crisis than the calmer interpretation and unbiased view of outside impartial impar-tial interests would suggest. As Great Britain is a party to the agreement, agree-ment, it seems a perfectly fair inference that the incident will be studied in a calm and dignified manner, and that the so-called threat of "war" is indeed one of the remotest possibilities. The Balkan situation, moreover, has been so frequently in as strained a position as it occupies jit present that there is no present need of granting it an' greater importance as a market .factor than at any time during the last year or so. "With civilization progressing so actively in favor of arbitration it will take much more than the incidents already enumerated to constitute adequate justification (if "justification" for war can ever be acknowledged to exist, which we greatly doubt) . for war The day is Already past when any nation may declare war without adequate cause. |