Changed Ratio of Prices to Earnings 93 
Selective Character of Market 
The decreasing ratio of stock prices to earnings 
during 1929 emphasizes what has already been said 
about the selective character of the stock market. It 
suffices to answer perhaps careless talk uttered prior 
to the panic and during its progress, that the market 
as a whole had been forced up chiefly by reckless 
indiscriminate speculation. President Simmons of 
the New York Stock Exchange drew attention, in 
his address before the Indiana Bankers’ Association 
on September 11, 1929, to what he called the intelli- 
gently selective nature of current stock price move- 
ments. Mr. Simmons commented in terms on the 
“marked discrimination shown by investors in select. 
ing certain issues and disregarding others” as a salu. 
tary consequence of the participation by the public 
in investment trusts and in experienced financial 
investment services. 
As the market marched to its peak about half of 
the groups listed receded in price, while half went 
up. Tobacco and tobacco products stocks went down. 
So did the Standard Statistics Company groups of 
theaters, motion pictures and amusements; textiles; 
sugar producing and refining; silk and silk goods; 
chain stores; retail trade; rayon; meat packing; 
leather and fertilizers, tires and rubber goods, auto- 
mobile parts and accessories, automobiles and trucks, 
and apparel stocks. 
The rise, also, was selective. This was manifest 
in agricultural implements, airplanes, building equip- 
ment, chemicals, copper and brass, electrical equip-