362 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1903. 



the way, the confidence of the Philippine foresty bureau 

 in the practicability of Gutta-percha culture, based upon 

 the progress that has been made in this direction in recent 

 years in Java. 



STOCK QUOTATIONS AND BUSINESS. 



A RECENT article in these columns referred to the 

 •**■ utility of the stock exchange in helping to fix values 

 of corporation securities, and the proved necessity for such 

 an institution. But it does not follow that the conditions 

 of all business are to be gaged by the upward or down- 

 ward tendency at any particular time of stock exchange 

 quotations. During the past month prices of listed secur- 

 ities have been unusually low, but any inference from this 

 fact alone, reflecting upon conditions of industry and busi- 

 ness in the United States, would undoubtedly prove erro- 

 neous. 



About the middle of the month a statement of the cur- 

 rent quotations for fifty important listed stocks, compared 

 with the highest quotations recorded in 1902 for the same 

 securities, showed a decline of over $1,000,000,000 in the 

 value of their combined share capital. Nobody will say, 

 however, that the intrinsic value of the properties repre- 

 sented had been decreased by this amount. Many of the 

 securities referred to are still new and not thoroughly 

 tested as to value, and both the high and the low " records " 

 in any given case may have been accidental or at least 

 made without reference to real values or earning capacity 

 of the property. Certainly the total capital stock in no 

 company on the list ever represented at any time so great 

 a total investment as the high water mark on the quota- 

 tion sheet, and at the moment of greatest depression the 

 holders of no company's shares sold out completely. 

 Again, while a "loss" of $1,000,000,000 may seem enor- 

 mous, the total face value of the fifty securities is very 

 many times greater. 



Opposed to this apparently bad indication, are the facts 

 of the bountiful crops growing or harvested, the busy con- 

 dition of factories, the profitable operation of transporta- 

 tion lines, the general employment of labor at fair wages, 

 and the absence of important strikes — all favorable auspi- 

 ces, without any evidence that a change for the worse is 

 near. 



Then what is the utility of "Wall street" quotations, if 

 they do not tally with plain indications of prosperity ? 

 Their immediate use — apart from telling each holder of a 

 stock what its marketable value is at the moment — is to 

 puncture inflated capitalizations. They speedily show, 

 when millions in shares are issued against properties worth 

 hundreds of thousands, something near the true values. 

 They caution a man not to estimate his fortune by the par 

 value of his stock certificates, and plan new investments 

 accordingly, but to look at the intrinsic worth of what he 

 owns. But for the stock exchange, by means ot which in- 

 vestments become subjected to the closest scrutiny, many 

 a man with inflated stocks hidden in his strong box would 

 imagine himself rich when he had nothing, and opportuni- 

 ties for fraud would be vastly greater than now. 



It should be added that the era of great industrial cor- 

 porations is still too recent for even their promoters and 

 managers always to be able to appraise their values 

 rightly, and stock exchange prices register only the pub- 

 lic's appreciation of them, which is not necessarily always 

 just. The tendency, though, is toward more scientific ac- 

 counting and a more intelligent estimation of capital val- 

 ues, and as this tendency is developed, fluctuations in 

 share prices will be restricted to narrower limits. Mean- 

 while the owners of soundly conducted businesses are not 

 greatly disturbed if at any given time the public may be 

 less inclined than at another to buy an interest in them. 

 And those businesses which are not conducted with a view 

 to affecting prices in Wall street — the greater part by far 

 of the whole — may be enjoying the utmost prosperity 

 while the shares of the speculative concerns are having 

 the greatest " slumps." 



A CASE OF SELF PROTECTION. 



\ \ 7HILE it is an acknowledged fact that the ordinary 

 rubber compounds are matters of general knowl- 

 edge, that is to expert manufacturers, it is not true that 

 the mass of the workmen know them. Further than this, no 

 good purpose would be served if they were possessed of 

 v i_ such knowledge, for the possession of formulas 

 Z- — 20 without the general ability, experience, and 

 r ~m discretion that their proper use requires, is a 

 F — 2 damage rather than a blessing. It has there- 

 1 fore come to pass, that the ordinary compound 

 card reads something like the table that is shown in the 

 margin. 



To the workman this means nothing, although to one 

 who knows the general line of goods made and is pos- 

 sessed of samples of the stock produced it would be quite 

 easy to arrive at the mixture. It is a curious fact, how- 

 ever, that the manufacturers are not trying to blind the 

 eyes of those who are quick to see. On the contrary, to 

 give them information is to make them more valuable. 

 They are simply obliged to keep from unthinking men, 

 knowledge, that in the first place, is none of their affair, 

 and in the second place that once possessed of, renders 

 the possessor unfit for his position. This may seem harsh, 

 but many otherwise good workmen are drifting from mill 

 to mill to-day trying to peddle compounds which they do 

 not comprehend, and which are not their property any- 

 how. When the workman can throw away his book of 

 formulas and out of his own knowledge combine rubber 

 and compound so as to get any ordinary result, he ceases 

 to be dangerous and for him the cipher code is unneces- 

 sary. 



So well has this plan worked, by the way, that some 

 manufacturers go even further and have steam gages with 

 their own special dials, and thermometers that are neither 

 a " F " nor " C," and from the manufacturer's standpoint it 

 works exceedingly well. Many workers do not like this 

 sort of misnaming and unusual recording, but after all the 

 compounds and the heats are trade secrets that belong to 

 the manufacturer. Why should he not guard them ? 



