The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-04-12

Wnat is 10 become OF uuy European security
when general war comes. However that
may be- tho advantage we will derive from
stimulated commerce and industry will
greatly outweigh any disadvantage that is
possible. For four years we have suffered
from facts that were consequent upon the
waste Of war in our own country. Now we
shall have the waste of war on the other
side of the slate. Whole populations with
drawn from the fields and the workshops
will make market for our grain and other
products and for our manufactures, espe-
cially of war material. Hence must come
good prices, plenty Of money and solid
prosperity to the whole people such as they
have not seen for half lifetime
Another Smash-up In Wall street.
The decided tumble in several leading
sion as we are likely to have for explaining
to the uninitiated the extremely artificial
character of the Wall street movements and
excitements. Northwestern fell yesterday
in the course of o few hours from "a to
IS 3-8 in the price of common stock, and
from 46 "a to Al IA in preferred stock;
Rock Island from 95 1-8 to 81 IL
Delaware and Lackawanna from Sc 10
to so. Several other stocks declined con-
siderably, but not so largely. Why does
this kind of property fuctuate so strangely
in the course Of few hours? It's real value
depends on the earnings of the roads, which
do not vary from hour to hour, nor even
from year to year, in any such proportions
as are indicated by the prices Of the stocks.
To quiet, permanent, unspeculative holder
Northwestern stock, for example, is worth
as much to-day as it was day before yester-
day, although if he were forced to sell it he
would have to part with it at heavy sacri-
flee. The road is valuable in proportion to
what it earns, which again is in proportion to
| the amount of its business. Not ton
of freight will be lost to it by yesterdays
fever and fiuctuation. AS ON investment to
hold, as distinguished from piece of
speculative property to be disposed OF, the
shares are intrinsically worth as much to-
day as they were two days ago. There is,
therefore, no real decline in the wealth of
the country by such q stampede as took
! place yesterday in the street The owners
of such shares who wish to hold them, and
are under no compulsion to sell them, are
just rs we'll off rs they were before
the tumble. It is not the country that
suffers, but only the speculative hold
ers of shares, by such great and sud-
den fluctuations. The country at large
is neither richer nor poorer, the permanent
holders of the stock are neither richer nor
poorer by the sudden tumbles which bring
ruin upon speculative operators who take
their chances like other miscalculating
spectators and must abide the result Of
their ventures Nobody suffers any loss ex-
cept those who have been gambling IN the
stock and those whose necessities may force
them to sell in SO disastrous a crisis Of the
market.
! If men overload themselves with any par
ticular species of property and are COM
PEELED to part with it on q sudden they
must necessarily be losers. A Spectator
in real estate who has overburdened
| himself with more than he can carry, and is
compelled to put property on the market in
excess of the immediate demands of buyers,
cannot get it's real value and suffers in the
same way. Such disasters are of no general
public interest, because they affect only
those who are compelled to dispose of the
same kind of property at SO inopportune n
moment. We must not be understood MS de-
nouncing the ordinary operations of the
Stock Exchange rs mere gambling. On the
contrary we believe it one of the most useful
institutions in the business world. It creates
q class of men skilled in understanding
values, and the ordinary quotations Of the
Stock Exchange are the truest index to tho
real value of the shares which change owner
ship in that arena. 1t is n business every
whit as Legitimate and honorable as ordinary
commerce. But it is subject to NIL the
chances, and more than all the chances, of
other buying and selling. If a dealer in
stocks ventures beyond his depth he
must pay the same penalty rs q
merchant who buys goods which he
has not sufficient capital to hold and is
forced to sell without regard to the state of
the market. He suffers by his imprudcnce,
and the purchasers gain, but the general
prosperity of the community is not affected
unless the community at large has been
scduccd by the same speculative mania. We
accordingly look upon the great tumble in
stocks yesterday rs merely one of the ordi-
nary incidents of the market-a simple adj
dition to the numerous wrecks which attend
that dangerous navigation.
A New Italian Opern Tonight.