The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-12
The Mig Bonanza Again.


I'VE confess we are more doubtful Of the pub
lie learning anything to help them when they
have again made the large surplus profits on
which the class of promoters prey. II the
public had been willing to learn they have
had warnings again and again during the
last half century; but each new period OF
prosperity brings q fresh crop Of new things
and fresh crop of credulous fools; and the
cure for such inveterate folly will probably be
most gradual" The advice Of the Economist
will apply most fttingly to the present condi-
ton of our money market Nothing would be
moro gratifying to the HEnALD than to be able
to say conscientiously what SO many OF our
contemporaries are saying in reference to the
current investments in ''the street" 1t Is
always moro agreeable for a newspaper to
speak of the ''good times" the "brght pros
pects," and 'increase in values" and to
encourage the people to invest their
money in favorite securities" It Is always
on ungracious thing for journal
to enter upon the discussion of any particular
interests Citizens who go into Wall street
and buy and sell stocks take the same risks
business. 1t is not the duty Of newspaper
to inform stockbroker whether the railway
shares he purchases ore sound or unsound,
any more than it would be its business to tell
q groceryman that his eggs are tainted or
clothier that his clothes are shoddy.
There are so many considerations entering
into the real value of securities that no jour
nal no matter how well informed, can ex-
press an absolute opinion in reference to their
value. 1t would be o wrong to do SO;
wrong not only to the people but to those
who are endeavoring to sell honest pieces of
property. But when we find a steady, cum
ming, well sustained attempt to force upon the
money market o series of investments that
have bad name; when we find the whole
volume of Wall street business, for weeks and
weeks, tending only in one direction, and
directly under the guidance of spectators
who have made then of America infamous
in the money markets of the world, then it
becomes our duty to give general warning
in the words of the Economist.
We should be glad to see our people do an
active business in Wall street. There are q
thousand securities that may be purchased
from any respectable broker which will repay
the investment. Just now these securities,
suffering from the period Of long depression,
may be purchased at reasonable rate. There
never was time when good investments could
be more prudently made But these are not
the securities that have been bought and sold
by the thousands in Wall street in the last
few days. We find q railway company whose
shares were plundered by Credit Mobilier
corporaion another railroad, covered with
four or five mortgages, and drifting steadily
into bankruptcy; and still another enterprise,
investigation, which stamped it with fraud
and iniquity. These are made the staples
Of our trade in Wall street The pro-
cess by which they are forced has many
notifications. When the Big Bonanza mine
in Nevada-the swindle which entailed ruin
upon so many thousands of citizens of
that Territory-was first introduced the pa
pers were flooded with stories of its richness,
of the untold millions that were rock-bound
and quartz-embedded within its walls, that its
products would be enough to pay the national
debt. Story after story percolated through
the columns Of the press, uncriticised, I'M
questioned, unchallenged, until the people
who had purchased the shares at a vast in
crease over their real value only learned that
they had been robbed by gang Of ingenious
spectators. The men who sold the Big
Bonanza in Nevada are Of the same character
as the men who now control Wall street We
have no more confidence in the shares that
are now bounding from point to point under
the manipulations of these desperate gam
blers than we had Of the Big Bonanza shares
that are held by the widows and poor trades
men of the Pacific coast So long rs
these transactions are confined to the gam
blers themselves we caro- little. So long as
they cut their own Threats and lose their own
money it concerns us no more than q buffalo
stampede on o Kansas prairie. But our fear
is that the people, the merchants and trades
men who are recovering from period Of long
depression, who have saved, perhaps, little
money and are anxious to invest it, may be
tempted by these delusive reports and led to
buy these gambling shares at the artificial
price placed upon them by the gamblers them
selves.
There is no prudent business man, having
his earnings to invest, that would venture to
touch one of these securities. The reason is
that the men who control them are unworthy
Of public confidence and respect They have
led on i'll life and have brought upon the coun-
try an evil name. Their transactions in gold,
their speculations on Black Friday, their tam
pering with justice, their alliance with the old
Tammany thieves, their whole financial
achievements for the last five years have in
iurcd the American credit abroad to the extent
of hundreds Of millions Of dollars. There is
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