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on a capital of 9,00x3,000, and a group of leather companies paid 19% on an average. All the German war loans were, however, listed by special instruction at the price of issue. In 1917 there was again considerable speculation on the bourses, with generally rising prices, but the intervention of the United States in the war caused a set-back. At the end of 1917 the listing of prices was resumed, but publication of prices was strictly prohibited. Ger- man 3 % stock rose 7 to 8 points, and there was a strong demand for industrials. Between Sept. and Dec. 1918 the quotations of German securities on the German markets fell so heavily that German financial writers estimated the decrease in capital value at about 50 per cent. Meanwhile Germany witnessed her foreign credit such as it was go to pieces. This was proved not only by the price of the mark, but by an almost universal desire in neutral countries to withdraw outstanding credits to Germany. The index figures prepared by the Frankfurter Zeitung showed the following (a. representing values of 24 of the principal shipping, mining and dyeing concerns; b. of 10 important muni- tions, metal, petroleum and potash concerns. The table shows the effect of speculation before the German collapse, then a heavy fall, followed by a slight recovery at the end of 1918):

July 28 1914

Dec. 31 1917

Aug. 31 1918

Dec. 5 1918

Dec. 31 1918

a. b.

185 232

278 445

272 442

151 177

164 197*

Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, which was closed on the outbreak of war in 1914, was reopened on Feb. 9

1915. Business at first was not very extensive, except in shipping and home industrial shares. Foreign stocks were very weak in 1915 owing to persistent selling from Germany. The year 1916 was a record of remarkable fluctuations, and at the close all kinds of shares showed enormous gains. The largest improvement took place in the securities of home industrial concerns, which made huge profits, as the result of the elimination of German competi- tion. The Dutch Indian plantation companies made enormous profits, especially the sugar plantations, which sold a great part of their output to the British Government at high prices. Rubber and tobacco shares also improved in value. Royal Dutch shares were introduced for the first time on the American market in

1916. In 1917 the stock markets were rather quiet. Russian stocks fell enormously in the last months in consequence of the stoppage of interest payments, and the announcement that the Bolshevist Government would cancel the national debt. This latter step could only mean a serious financial disaster for Hol- land, where Russian stocks had found a ready market as being thoroughly sound investments. The total Dutch ownership of Russian stocks of State as well as private railways was estimated at 1,500,000,000 to 2,000,000,000 florins. New shipping shares amounting to 27,500,000 florins in face value were added to the market in 191 7. In the following year the tendency was irregular, and sometimes weak, directly owing to the German collapse, but towards the end of the year prices rose again. Large new issues were made by shipping, plantation, and trading companies.

Vienna and Budapest. In the early years of the war there was extravagant speculation on the Vienna and Budapest bourses, and prices rose to extraordinary heights on the enormous profits on paper made by all the industries of the country. But a heavy collapse succeeded the military breakdown in 1918, and the subsequent break-up of the old Empire.

Switzerland. Following the example of the chief foreign bourses, the Basle and Zurich Stock Exchanges suspended opera- tions towards the end of July 1914. The Geneva and Lausanne bourses, however, remained open even during August. On Jan. 7 1915 the Basle Stock Exchange resumed the publication of its daily price list. A further step forward was taken on Dec. i 1915, and on April 25 1916 the bond market was reopened in its entirety. On June 26 transactions were extended to the full pre-war list. The Zurich bourse restarted official business on May 15 1916. (C. J. M.)

STOKER, BRAM (1847-1912), Irish author, was born in Dublin Nov. 8 1847 and was educated at a private school there and at Trinity College. He entered the Irish civil service, to which his father also belonged, and wrote critical articles for various newspapers. He was called to the English bar, but in 1878 he joined Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum theatre and was for many years his secretary and finally his biographer. He wrote a number of novels, of which Dracula (1897) was the best known, as well as Personal Reminiscences of Sir Henry Irving (1906). He died in London April 20 1912.

STOLYPIN, PETER ARCADEVICH (1863-1911), Russian statesman, was born in 1863, the son of Admiral Stolypin by his wife, a princess of the house of Gorchakov. He was educated at the university of St. Petersburg, and in 1884 entered the Government service. In 1902 he was appointed governor of Grodno, and in 1905 was transferred to Saratov, where he became known as a firm administrator. In 1906 he was recalled to take up the position of Minister of Internal Affairs, and in July of the same year succeeded Goremykin as Minister President. His career as Premier is described in the article RUSSIA. His firm and repressive policy toward all kinds of sedition caused him to be regarded as a deadly enemy by the revolutionary party, and many attempts upon his life were made. In Aug. 1906 a bomb was exploded at his summer residence, which seriously injured one of his daughters, but all efforts to kill him proved vain until 1911, when he was shot in a theatre at Kiev on Sept. 14, before the eyes of the Imperial family, by a Jew named Mordka Bogrov. The minister died of his wounds Sept. 18 1911.

STONE, MARCUS (1840-1921), English painter (see 25.957), died in London March 24 1921.

STONE, MELVILLE ELIJAH (1848- ), American journal- ist, was born at Hudson, 111., Aug. 22 1848. His father was a Methodist minister, of New York birth, who had moved to Illinois in early life and combined his activities as a circuit- preacher with the running of various small businesses, includ- ing book-selling and printing. He had English, Scottish and Irish blood in his veins, the Stone family having settled in New England in the i7th century. In 1860, when Melville was 12, his father was made pastor of a Methodist church in Chicago, and it was there that he got his schooling. In 1864 he began work as a newspaper reporter, but after sundry journalistic experi- ences he was set up in business in 1868 as proprietor of an iron- foundry and machine-shop, which incidentally made a specialty of the supply of folding theatre-chairs, etc. In the great Chicago fire of 1871 this was destroyed, and Stone was then for some time occupied in the administrative work of municipal relief and reconstruction after the fire. But in 1872 he again took up journalism, as one of the editors of the Chicago Republican (subsequently Inter-Ocean), and later of the Post and Mail, becoming for several years a political correspondent at Washing- ton. At the end of 1875, having returned to Chicago, he and a colleague started a new Chicago paper, the evening Daily News (seeiQ-STi), and, after he had obtained the help of a new partner in Victor F. Lawson as its manager, their venture soon became increasingly prosperous. In 1878 he and Lawson bought out the Post and Mail, and in 1881 they established the Morning News (later Record and Record-Herald). In 1888 Stone's interest was bought out by Lawson, and he retired, taking a prolonged holiday in Europe. Returning to Chicago in 1891, he took to banking by the foundation of the Globe National Bank, of which he became president, and he kept up this connexion for about ten years; but meanwhile pressure was put on him to take part in the reorganization of the Associated Press, then already a well-known news-agency, and in 1893 he accepted the posi- tion of general manager. In this capacity Melville Stone became even more prominent and powerful in the journalistic world than he had been as a Chicago editor and newspaper proprietor. At that time the Associated Press was still struggling (see 19.547) with its competitor, the United Press, but its enterprise now received a new stimulus, and by 1897, under Stone's management, and as subsequently reorganized in 1901, its service knew no rival. Stone had intimate relations with all the leading men of his time and played an important part in the publicity given to events and movements. He held this position until