The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-01
Big Bonanxa speculations.

tlemen who buy and sell in Wall street It
has always been the policy of the HERALD to
refrain from criticsing any mere business
matters. The temptation to use the press to
create false impressions as to mines, shares and
stocks is one of the constant perils Of modern
journalism. We prefer the theory that the
people who buy and sell shares in any com
pany should make themselves thoroughly
acquainted with the value Of the property
before engaging in it's purchase. If they find
they have made a mistake the fault is their
own, as it is neither the duty nor within the
power of any journal to learn the exact true
value Of these vast interests, widely ramified
as they are, depending for their value
upon thousand circumstances with which
journalists cannot be familiar. AT the same
time, when we are in business excite
ment like that which has pervaded
Wall street for a few weeks past,
it becomes the duty Of journalist to warn
the people, just as it is the duty of the con-
stable to warn the wayfarer from the pesti-
lence or the fire. What we see in Wall street
is a prodigious purchase and sale Of shares
has grown up in our money market an arti-
fetal system of buying and selling what are
called puts and calls which is not gen.
uine business, but gambling The men who
buy aid sell the shares quoted in our money
market reports every day are not purchasers
Of real property, but simply spectators,
who press fictitious values up and down IN
the hope Of gain. This whole system has be-
come developed to such an extent that fifty
thousand shares Of stock can be bartered in
Wall street with small amount Of money.
The whole system is fictitious. So long
as it is confined to stock gam
bers and business Adventures no one
on with as much concern as they would stndy
conflict between wild Indian tribes or
horde Of prairie wolves. But the danger is
that in times of business excitement like the
present, when the stock lists show sudden
rise in value, the outside public, who are
always tantalized with stories of enormous
fortunes made in Wall street By daring, able
spectators, will rush in and insist upon pur-
chasing these shares. The result is that the
spectators, after putting their stocks up to
o false value, succeed in selling to the out
siders, who carry off their losses to suffer as
best they may, while the stock gamblers calmly
organize for another campaign. Therefore
tie practical study Of the stock gambler is
how to Induce the outside public merchants,
business men and citizens who have means
to 20 into the street and be robbed. This is
the plain English Of it, and those who deal
in such securities" as we have seen, so far as
the outside public is concerned, are little
more than highway robbers.
If these sales were really honest transac-
tons, If they represented business interests
that had been S"-u,dly managed and yielded
revenues, and could be safely purchased for
investment, then we should regard the enor-
mons sales OF yesterday and the day before as
an evidence Of healthy activity in business, Of
the possession BY our citizens of large
amount of money and Of their anxiety to in
vest their capital in the enterprises of the
country But take the three ''interests"
which have been most popular for the last
sixty days. First, we have q railroad born
in fraud, which was robbed by an inside ring
Of Credit Mobilier statesmen, which was strip
ped by its projectors of every dollar they could
put into their pockets. We pass on to another
railroad which is already covered by four or
five mortgages, and which has been robbed
by one set of thieves after another, which
is drifting surely into bankruptcy, and whose
name has become a stigma upon American
enterprise in every part Of the world. We
take up another enterprise and we find that
its management was the subject of close inves-
tigation BY Congress that it became evident
THAI is management was corrupt in every
respect, 50 corrupt that the Senate and House
deprived it of government aid. We find these
interests in tho hands Of daring spectators.
| We find a steady, ingenious movement 70 give
them new life, to fill the papers with stories Of
their value. to tint them with rose color, 50 as
70 induce the people to rush in and buy. So
steadily has this process been sustained that
the shares have been pushed up from one
point to another in valuc, and the desire to
deal in them has become mania
4 Where it will end we do not know. What
we fear is that there will be n reaction, iniu-
rious not alone to the comparatively few
people who buy shares, but to the
whole business interests az the nation
Here we are emerging from the dark period
!. Of unusual business depression and despair.
Here We are on the verge Of spring more
than usually promising in It's opportunities.