STOCK EXCHANGE HOLIDAYS.
It is not altogether surprising that dealers on the Stock Exchange here are feeling something akin to amusement that Wall Street should recently have been indulging in a good many Saturdays "off" and half-days on other working days of the week. For the cause of these holidays, namely, the slump with the loss of fortunes represented, everyone, of course, must feel sympathy, but the slight, feeling of amusement is caused-by the fact that 'when Wall Street was booming and
speculators were clearly losing their heads over the phenomenal rise in prices, certain journalistic organs here were loudly clamouring for a six day week on the London Stock Exchange. As a matter of fact, at the time mentioned the London Stock Exchange was by no means free from excessive speculation in old and new industrial shares, and for the most part there was a very general feeling that markets here were all the better for the break at the end of the week, giving the speculative public pause for reflection instead of the fever of speculation being kept up without intermission. For it is of the essence of a wild boom that speculative interests must be kept at fever heat all the time ' - the moment that serious reflection comes the boom is usually doomed. In view of all that has happened in Wall Street there is certainly no reason for regretting that for the present Stock Exchange business is confined here to the five days of the week. A. W. K.
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