The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-07

ct mir, man would be ashamed to confess
that he had committed himself to Erie stock
An excellent line is become q byword What
confidence can one feel now in American
investments of any description? Were the |
story of the Erie not confirmed by unim- |
peachable authority and accepted by gone
raj consent, it would have been treated as
monstrous caDdrd, too heavily weighted |
ever to have taken flight across the Atlantic. |
Nothing could have been more unlikely. |
How, then, can we be sure that the story |
may not repeat itself any day in quarters the |
most unsupported? We know now that there
is n civilized country where the arm of the
law is too short to stop the trains of rival
companies being purposely run into each
other or to prevent the traffic of whole
districts being brought summarily to q stand
still. Fancy the report of an English rail
way making incidental mention of the wan
ton .crumpling up of couple of its engines,
and the shivering of n few of its carriages,
under head of deterioration of rolling stock.
Or fancy its directors stating while rem
dering an account of their stewardship,
that personal reasons had compelled them
to suspend the traffic for some days between
Liverpool and Manchester, putting in evil
dence, in answer to obiectors, formal DEGREES
of indemnity supplied by the eminent Judge
they had retained on their staff. For in
America standing judges are, it seems, as
easily pfOculaDl6 as SUdnulnB counsel are
with us. To say nothing of the time-hon-
ored institution of reputation, which shows
its permanent vitality on the eve of each
Presidential election, the story of the Erie is
of itself sufficient to erase American seCuri-
ties from the list of the intending investor,
and to place the investments of the Anglo
Saxon North very much on par with those
of the Hispano-Indian South
The Americans, however, may retort and
to11 70, OF To tl, t.,,4 u,
we cannot with decency be so hard on them
as we should like to be. We do not go back
to the scandals of 1866, There is the Albert
Assurance Company If ever a cautious man
may embark with a clear conscience in joint
stock enterprise, it is, one would think, in
the enterprise that takes the form of insu-
| rance. If ever man intends to make a safe
bargain it is surely when he commits him
! self to moderate annual payments that he
may secure provision for his family on his
death. Both Of these classes, and most GER
| tainly the latter in connecting themselves
| with the Albert, may be assumed to have done
so with as little thought of gambling as if they
had been buying land or consols. The prin-
ciples of insurance are based upon figures,
| not fancies the solidity of the superstructure
may be made simple matter of calculation,
and the successful crowning of the editce
ought to be fOregone conclusion. Now that
the Albert has closed its doors, we are told
that Cassandras had been crying in the City,
and whispering their parable against it, al
though few were found to regard them In
deed, how should those who were not in the
secret of the amalgamations and commissions,
and of the exceedingly liberal scale on which
officials regulated their own remuneration,
have set down the prophets of evil as any
thing but calumniators? Until the other day,
at any rate, when insurers on the banks of
the Hoogley seem to have read the signs of
the coming cyclone, we may imagine the
shareholders and policy holders alike looking
to the future in tranquil placidity. Here
there was body of investors who
congratulated themselves with every
show of reason on the prudence that had
limited their aspirations to modest certain
ties, setting their faces against any possible
risks. All at once to vary our metaphor,
came the explosion that shattered all that is
SO significantly expressed in the technical
word assurance" We should like to know
how many assured and assurers are at this
moment quietly sitting similar mines.
Never is it more true that ignorance is bliss
than when an old invalided man has gone on
paying premiums for long life to q rotten
insurance Office; and doubtless many such q
one descends to the grave in comfortable
ignorance of how narrowly his heirs will have
to snatch from the fire the provision he had
bought for them with SO much privatiOn
Then there is a fatal instinct of con
servatism in investors. People embark in
schemes which are for the moment intrinsi
caly good calculating that time and action
must stand still with all the world but them
selves and their concerns. For example
electricity is likely to become the vital prin
ciple of trade, and telegraphs, in their i'm
mense development, the arteries of com
merce The first Atlantic cable paid largely
In the battle of life, cost what messages
might, no man could afford to abandon the
= wires to his rivals, and the desire for rapi(
communication grew with the facilities 70
gratifying it. At first, people in the exercise
of sound discretion and very rational fore
thought rushed upon the shares, forcing then
up so high that promoters saw their profit il
5 floating, or rather sinking, competing lines
u The soundness of their estimate was full
e borne out by the results. The Atlanti
= proved wide enough for couple of cables
! and although the new sea serpents natural
: began by darting their fangs at each other
: when once satisfied that murder meant sui
g eide they settled down side by side in com
a parative peace. Shareholders have no
Il done badly hitherto but perhaps it
IS nearly time that they reconsidered thei
u position from the most recent poin
8 Of view. 1t is more than possibl
u that, in marine telegraphy as in other things
81 reckless competition may outrun legitimat
N expansion of business. We might go on in
y definitely multiplying instances from a
III classes of investments. But TO end with a
u that we hold most stable, with our funds an
% our very soil, investors would do well to bea
~ III mind that even these are of the earth, an
20 that the earth is always in revolution. Wha
~ Of the possible influence of coming legislI
Il. T.. I.