No Fear for the Market

FINANCIERS DON’T EXPECT A BREAK, BUT ARE
PREPARED FOR ANY EMERGENCY.

     Financial men in the city held no meeting yesterday, but little groups of them were in communication with each other during the day and evening, and there seemed to be an understanding that there was to be no serious trouble in Wall Street to-day on account of the illness of President McKinley. The hopeful bulletins, indicating that the physicians in attendance upon the President believed that the crisis had passed and that his recovery was to be expected, helped to reassure many of the men who are prominent in the financial district.
     A majority of the Clearing House committee remained in the city yesterday, with the understanding that there would be a meeting of the committee at the earliest possible hour if alarming news from Buffalo was received. In the afternoon, when information that the President’s recovery was being predicted by his physicians had been sent over the wires to this city, a member of the committee said to a Tribune reporter:
     “There will be no meeting of the committee until to-morrow morning. We shall meet in the morning and make preparations for any demand that may be made upon the associated banks to sustain the money market. Probably nothing will happen to require extensive loans, but as nobody can ever tell in advance what is to happen in Wall Street, we do not want to be caught unprepared. It is better to be ready for an emergency, even if nothing unusual happens, than to be unprepared. The experience of yesterday, combined with the favorable reports of the President’s condition, probably will cause the most timid and cautious investors in stocks to rest easy to-night. The commercial conditions of the country are so good that even such a regrettable affair as the attack upon the life of the President has not been able to disturb business seriously.”
     “The reports of the President’s improvement,” said one of the financiers of the city, “is most reassuring to the men in Wall Street. I have been asked several times to-day why the shooting of the President might be expected to cause alarm among the financial men of the country, and I have said that the confidence of the business interests in the ability and wisdom of the President was so great that the fact that he is at the head of the government has helped to create prosperity. Anything, therefore, tending to impair, even temporarily, his control of the government, may be expected to create alarm.”
     Several Wall Street operators who were in the city last evening said that they did not expect a serious depression in stocks to-day. The rally on Saturday morning, after the bears had hammered down stocks a few points, they said, indicated that the market would be sustained and kept from breaking. They declared that nothing approaching a panic need be thought of seriously. The conditions were all favorable for a steady market.
     The promise made by the Clearing House banks to take care of the money market, it was said last evening, would prevent trouble to-day. The banks have agreed to place at the disposal of borrowers all the money that will be needed, even if the demand should reach $100,000,000. No bank will be permitted to get in trouble, and no firm or individual in good standing will be allowed to fail on account of a scare to-day. Although the surplus reserve of the banks is below $7,000,000, some of the financial men said last evening that it is within $200,000 of what it was on May 11, two days after the Northern Pacific corner, when the banks loaned $20,000,000. Confidence in the men in control of the monetary situation, it was said, would help to dissipate many fears and prevent trouble.