New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-10-28
SUGGESTIONS OF TIE CRISIS.

SUGGESTIONS or THE CRISIS.
II ia uSeiess to attempt to disguise the fact
that there is profound sense OF uneaslness
and dis:rust pervading iina:clal circles lnis
is made evident not only by the daily reports
of the Stock Exchange, where such thing
az q market has almost ceased to exist, put
by the ready credence which the most absurd
and fantastic rumors gain a. soon us they are
set flying in the Street. The stories OF en-
bezzlement and defalcatiOn have followed each
other with such frequency, that the pubic
mind seems to have lost the sense of discrIm-
nation, and as readily swallows inventions
at the EXPENSE of the frmest md most con-
seryative corporations as if they referred to
mushroom houses or wildcat enterprises
There can be no healthy business transac-
tons as long as we see the BEST
diyidend-paying stocks IN tho country
fluctuating up and down with no more
important cause than that which moves the
green-baize sea of the theater. 1t is to be
boped that tho long-delayed settlement of tho
matters at issue between the Union ITust
Company and the Lake Shore Railroad VIII
bring back some feeling OF security ana
solidity to the market but there Is still
serious danger impending which should DO
met without loss of time. The Grlnnell
bankruptcy case, as long as 1t IS suffered 10
remain unsettled, is fraught with the most
serious consequences to the business world.
The mass of stocks now tied up in that case
ia great enough to cause deplorable effect
ON the staggering market, if they are thrown
mon it. The cheapness of stocks goes for
Al
is virtually the condition of the Street.
We understand that many of the creditors
of G.. b. Grinnell g. Co. are willing TO MAKE
a liberal settlement with that firm, provided It's
affairs can be taken out of bankruptcy. Is not
this, therefore, the time for Commodore van
derbt and his friends to take up at 70 the
Lake Shore stock which he agreed to take at
%. and refused on account of the inability OF
his friends to take their share1 BY adopting
this plan he has the opportunity OF placing the
stock with trustworthy parties who are aDie
TO pay for and hold the amounts to which
they put their names. This would raise the
market value of all stocks and help the hold
ers of such property to get fair value Tor IL,
instead of having it forced down to mere
nominal price by an assignee
Business men generally are not in the temper
to lay TO heart the lessons Of time of chas-
tisement like the present The boy in the
fable told the pedagogue to pull him out Of
the water first, and preach his sermon after
wards Wall Street is just now equally i'm
patient of any moral deductions from the
present unhappy state Of affairs But all the
loss and suffering of the last month will have
been in vain if tho Street. does not acquire
a more vivid sense of certain laws of business
morality than has recently obtained there.
There have been too few railroads IN the
United States which have not been employed
as the mere money-making instruments of
two or three leading shareholders, who have
used their power and knowledge to raise and
depress the price of their own stocks for their
own advantage, and not for the benefit of the
road or the public. 1t is perhaps asking much
of ordinary human nature to forbid it TO use
superior information for private ends, but it
is no more than we demand from public Off
GERS What would be Thought of an official
of the Treasury Department who should be
caught dabbng in gold or grGenbacks for his
private account But wherein does this diff
fer from those secret combinations of Rail-
road Presidents and Directors to raise or de-
press their own shares for private specula-
toni The penalty is sooner or later paid in
d total paralysis of public confidence, which
is pretty nearly what we see in Wall Street
to-day in respect to a dozen leading corpora
tons