Smyrna times., 1869-10-06
THE NEW YORK GOLD GAMBLERS.

1he New York Tribune thus refers to the
late gold gambling operations in that city and
their remedy. 1t says:
1t is easy enough to draw cheap morals from
the recent events. Plainly there is as little
honor among Gold Gamblers as among thieves.
They use lawyers injunctions to prevent the
payment of honest debts; obey the rules of
the Gold Exchange when they make by it, and
repudlate when they lose betray each others
counsels, sell out their confederates, and con-
sent to the ruin of their partners; while they
regard the prostration Of business, the distress
among innocent classes, and tie destruction of
great and honorable houses which they have
wrought, with an indifference as callous as if
the sufferers were citizens of another planet.
Plainly there is absolutely no legitimate basis
tor the operations. Houses that hadn't
thousand dollars in gold to bless themselves !
withal, bought and sold, during Fridays |
phrenzy, by the million; transactions reached
the enormous aggregate of hundreds of mil |
lions, when all the parties concerned could not
have scraped together tenth Of the sum ; the
utterly fictitious premium was run up to 60,
while the man with thousand dollars of ac-
tual gold for sale might search Wall st. thro'
without finding a counter on which he could
lay it down and take up instead fourteen hun
dred dollars in greenbacks. Plainly this bust
ness, which exists without basis and is con-
Quoted with thieves honor is nevertheless
capable of mastering, under such combinations
as that of last week, the financial interests of
the whole country of reducing other bust
ness to its own level, and converting the opera
tions Of all dealers into gambling.
Such lessons of the panic" it is easy enough
to draw. We shall have efforts to make deal
ing in gold on margin illegal, efforts to regu-
, late the premium efforts to reorganize the
: Gold Exchange, a hundred plans with each its
: hundred excellencies Doubtless many may
. show some salient features of apparent merit
but, so far as the end to be attained is concern
ed, they are pretty sure to be alike worthless.
For this, after all, seems to us the true lesson
e of last week calamity The business of this
C city, and measurably of the whole country
- must remain at the mercy Of combinations like
n the late one until we adopt the effectual cure
h and return to specie payments There may b.
- palliatives for the disease but specie payment
y, ~ afford the only remedy. Whoever pleads 70
y the continuance of our present currency, plead
= for the continuance of state in which tn
= events OF last week are at any time possible
~ 10 To oppose the rapid appreciation of the Publ
A Credit, use of the gold in the Treasury to pa
- the P9blic Debt, preparations for a new loa
- at a low rate of interest, and Resumption, is t
- = favor the perpetuation of last weeks work a
= permanent system for the business of tn
-, country. Meantime there is a matter whic
~ demands the immediate attention of the street
Il
;S tually suspended, yet sales of gold continue
oa sums sufficient to meet the current wants
,rS business. Why may not this system be PEI
ho manent? Why renew the mischievous Col
nS ~ Exchange at all? The Treasury pays out
M interest say one hundred and twenty-five mi
~ ~ lions per annum; it collects in customs say OIL
,"s ' hundred and seventy-ive millions. The accl
les5 mutation thus caused in the Treasury is az
6a justed by Treasury sales, and these and Il
~ ~ shipments of coin to and from New Yorl
,aS .S which constantly tend in like manner 10 equa
o,'. ze themselves, seem to secure a sufhciel
y" I%uo movement in gold What use is there for
aao mo Gold RoomP The Stock Exchange has ce
~J tain large basis of actual legitimate busine
nu nu besides the constant gambling operations whiC
lod do so much to bring it into discredit; but Il
,,a Tos Gold Exchange is mere gambling and nothil
'bo else. 1t is not called for by the business
r;oI the street. 1t can be dispensed with from tt
o"I. time forth, without any actual loss or mu
"" serious inconvenience. The men who partiC
pate in it are gamblers pure and simple. WI
e should they have any better position either
VI business or social circles than the keepers
SIS SIS faro banks? Why should respectable bankin
cry houses encourage them, associate with the
jo IoE or recognize them2 The time is ripe for &C
uHIu H sideration of these questions, and no man W
nIy appreciates the business OF Wall street C
ace ace' hesitate as to their answer.