Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-03-13


not so much in the Common Council or Board
of AID rmen, perhaps, as Fernando Wood ;
not so much in the New York Legislature as
Dean Richmond, Peter Cagger, or Thurlow
Weed not 50 much, in general public affairs,
as the President ofthe United States or either
House of Congress. Nevertheless, in certain
weighty matters, Wall street is King. When
ever joint stock association, or corporation
commercial, or city, or county, or State,
or the general government, wants money,
Wall street is looked to, just about as natur-
ally as one sends for a doctor when he gets
sick. Wall street is the focus where the sur
plus capital of the country centres, and the
central point whence it irradia es again over
the whole country, to build railroads, dig the
copper of Superior, build ships at Portland,
others to plough the waves of the Pacific
Whatever power the capital Of the country
has is centered in Wall street.
The great institution of Wall street, the
Stock Exchange, has done much good, and has
done, and may still do, great deal Of harm.
Stock gamblers are the curse Of Wall street,
as pecuators are the curse Of Government.
The modus operandi of gambling at the
stock board-Wall street gambling generally
is scarcely known by most people. The
gambling at the Stock Exchange which now
absorbs public attention is the gambling in
god We will try to make the game under
stood by outsiders. There are scme people
who need god for export, others who must
have it to pay duties on exports. tits need
ed for other purposes. The general suspen-
sion ofspecie payments puts it at premium,
of course. The gamblers at the Stock Ex-
change take advantage of the circumstances,
to make gold commodity for speculation.
How? Why, John Smith, a noted Wall
streeter, sells at the first board of any day you
please, $50, 900 in American gold, to John
Brown, another noted Wall streeter, for 60
per cent premium. 1t is simple transaction
on bit of paper, without a dollar Of gold
connected acith 1t. In comes an honest deal
er, who wants $4,000 in god, and he must
pay 60 per cent. premium for it. That is the
price on Change The gambling operation
between Smith and Brown has so fixed it
We have before us the sales at the Stock Ex-
change on February 23d-just as good as any
other day for illustration. At the first board,
$3.50, 900 in American gold were sold at 1854
@165. At the second board, 100000, at
Now we venture TO say that in
these transactions, representing $s6o,Ooo in
gold, not so much as 100000 actually
changed hands. The average sales day OF
American gold, at the Stock Exchange, are
about one million dollars There are not
$40 900, 900 in the vaults of all the banks
So the gold must al change hands every
month and third. 1t, in fact, does no such
thing. The most of it is wholly stationary,
serving only as a basis for speculation.
This speculation in gold does great deal
of harm in ways which need not now be
indicated, but to say that the prices which
rule on Wall street point out the degree Of
in the currency of the country is
absurd. 1t is at one price to-day, or rather
TWO or three prices; was different yesterday,
and may be lower or higher tomorrow. We
all know, whatever else may be thought of it,
the currency has no such weather cock at
tribute Gold has been ma lie matter of spec
ulaton and stock gambling. 1t is among the
" fancies," and is run up or down according
as best su IS the purposes of the Dealers
That is the simple truth of the matter. The
New York Herald thus concludes an article
on this subject .ta.
"Who wants to buy any gold at high
premium? Very few people beyond those
who bay it to sell again when it rises higher.
But even these dealers in gold seldom handle
the substance. They buy and sell the shad-
ow of gold on paper. Out Of the millions of
gold bought and sold weekly in Wall street,
not one million of dollars worth is ever seen
or owned by the purchaser.
"Paper takes the place of gold in these
as in the currency. If the
Uniled States received its custom duties in its
own currency, and paid the interest on its
bonds in its own money, instead Of in gold,
there would be no demand for the precious
metal except in very few cases, where per.
sons are obliged to send money abroad.
"In all ordinary transactions gold and sill
yer are unnecessary, and the people get along
yery well without them. The rise in prices
hurts everybody more than the rise in gold.
The quotations from Wall street no longer
show us what god is really worth, but only
at what price the specializing, gambling mon
ey changers are buying and selling it for their
own aggrandizements." se i9-