The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-04-15
The Coming Financial Revuls,ou.

The recent disastrous smash in Atlantic
Mail has naturally created very uneasy
feeling in financial circles, and, united with
the unsettled condition of the government and
the want of confidence in the men who ara
shaping and controlling affairs at Washington.
it has induced general desire to get clear Of
stock operations and an unwillingness to make
any further loans upon such collaterals The
belief is that the collapse of this bubble is but
the precursor of a series of similar calamities
certain soon to fall upon U.S. and to spread ruin
among those who have invested their fortunes
in fancy stocks under the enticing hope of
realizing large profits or extraordinary rates Of
interest Hardly any more confidence is felt
to-day in Pacific Mail than in Atlantic, and the
universal bursting up of such railroad stocks
as are used for ''short" sales and Corners"
and the caving in of all other fancy securities
express, telegraph mining and the whole list
Of kite-fying rubbish-would scarcely take
any person by surprise.
The fact is that we are about to undergo In
this country the same experience through
which the people Of France and England have
numerous other schemes of imitation started in
France after the revolution, served for awhile to
excite anticipations of enormous fortunes in the
public mind and to render nearly every man
crazy speculator, and ended in bringing upon
the country widespread ruin, from which the
Rothschilds and their railroads alone escaped.
In England, about two years before Sir Morton
Peto made his celebrated excursion to the
United States, the people began to feel the
pinch and pressure of a financial reaction, fol-
lowing undue speculation and imitation. The
Peto pilgrimage was in reality desperate
attempt to raise money and to make rally in
the last rounds of the fight with bankruptcy,
but it failed and on the return of the
great railroad fnancier to England there
was general smash up in railroad
stocks and panic, from which none
escaped uninjured and in which many
were wholly ruined. The principal trouble in
both France and England arose from the fact
that persons with small fortunes and moderate
incomes had withdrawn their little capital from
the funds and other safe investments that were
paying them three or four per cent, and trans
ferred all they possessed to these speculative
ventures, which promised them largely in
creased means of living and fabulous ultimate
profits. When the storm came there was
nothing for these deluded victims to save from
the wreck. We are in much the same condition
ourselves at the present time. Thousands Of
persons of limited means have been enticed by
the hope of heavy dividends to place their
fortunes In railroad, steamship, telegraph or
express companies, while the stock they have
sought as an investment has been made the
plaything of jobbers on all sides, whose opera
tons, whether ''bulling" here or clearing"
there, gambling desperately with Pacific Mail
or making q corner on Atlantic Mail, have
been carried on without any regard to the
small fry that have been foolish enough to
swim in the track of the Wall street sharks.
The spectators and gamblers of the ''street"
have found ready allies In their work, both in
the national Congress and in the national
banks. The former has labored faithfully to
help on all bubble schemes and to give legis-
lative sanction to swindling and fraud, as has
recently been demonstrated by the debates ON
the Pacific Railroad, when the gag law was 80
ehectually applied to Mr.. Washburn and all his
attempts to stem the tide Of corruption were
defeated. The latter have used their capital
to bolster up stockjobbing operations, and
have loaned money on insufficient margins upon
almost any fancy securities that may have been
offered. If the panic, which is inevitable, should
come tomorrow the banks would find them
o1x 10
of the amounts they have loaned to an enor-
nous extent upon stock collaterals, and
they would collapse with the bubbles
they have helped TO initiate. 1t is by no means
certain that the country would not be benefited
by the speedy bursting of financial tester
that has been for so long time gathering to
head. AS storm In the natural world
destroys mischievous insects and purifes the
air, so storm in the financial world sweeps
away what is worthless and brings about
more healthful condition Of affairs. Such men
as the railroad autocrat, Vanderbilt, who have
gone on conquering like the first Napoleon,
may only find another Moscow, from which
they will be driven by the fire and the smoke
to retreat, or they may meet their Waterloo in
the crisis. But Of the whole army Of fancy
operators and stock jobbing managers, with
their CORNERS" and their ''calls, not vestige
will be left. As the crash must assurcdly como
at last, probably the it occurs the better.
It is fortunate that the great majority Of our
merchants and traders are beyond the reach Of
its influence and with ordinary prudence In
their banking operations will be able to escape
injury. The revival Of business among them
is seen in our advertising columns, which serve
as barometer to indicate the condition Of the
trade of the country, and which were never
more crowded than at the present time. An
unhealthful spirit of speculation and wild