The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-07-21
Some Eras Of Speculation.

The year 1922 Witnessed the COM
meacefnBnt of a speculation which cul-
minated In a crisis such as had not been
known since the South sea bubble. By
1924 foreign loans to the nominal
amount of more than 934 100000 had
been issued III this esNrtfss. In 1926
began tho inevitable collapse: Chill
and Brazil led the way with failures
more or less redeemed u later years.
Peru ths penniless and Paraguay are to
be found side by side, as in the recordA
of 1875. Poyaie, sn lndepebdsht stats
of Honduras. bott3VWed 100000 on the
personal security of Gregor MacGregor,
the cdciQaCe of the country, and proved
a worthy precursor of its present reprh.
sentative ky falling 10 bfo7ide the In
terest on d single coupon. It's scrip,
adorned with all the high-fowh titles
of its author, long served the turn OF
petty jobbers; and may even A51 Ct
casionally be found reserved as curl
GsiGy of the time. Along with thess
ventures from the New World just
starting ihts existence came appeals
IfOm countries having a claim upon the
patriotic or the sentimental interest Af
the English nsti5n. Spain and Portu-
sai contracted obligations for which
they are wholly or partially in default at
this day. Greece drew from the pock-
ets pf s5mpathizing bondholdefs the
loans Of R2,000,00O, thS interest on
which hes Been suspended now for fifty
years. The speculation of the period
seems to have been jHsatiabls, Thg
political fate Of nations hung in the bal
ance of the stock markets. The opera
tions of Mr.. RothschiId and che LondoA
fnanciers, it is said, CREATED ali excite
ment scaft6ly inferior to the march of
armies The troops themselves, as Sgd
ney Smith wittily remarked, advanced
to the cry of scrip and pthniun," "Fe-
duced, and 3-pet-cents." Following in
the wake Of foreign loans and politco
financial speculations came the tn6re
usual devices of the ingenious promoter.
Foreign mines with a nominal capital
of more than e24 100000, more than
900 industrial companies calculated ST
nearly 940O,0GO, ,00O, stimulated the APP
petites of the small investor. AS on
all such occasions, charity and self-help,
profit and philanthropy, went hand in
hand. The same touching sympathy
with the poor which produced the
charitable corporation of 1913 produced
the Equitable Loan Company of 1926,
and has since been the faithful parent
of more doubtful children in the shape
of companies for workmen's dwellings,
and other philanthropic objects. De
signed to relieve the industrious poor
from the usuriouB exactions of tine
pawn broker, and at tho same time
promising to its shareholders a dividend
of 40 per cent, The Equitable Loan
Company was one merely of the many
schemes by which the unwary were
lured to their destruction. Nor was
the speculation confined to the Stock
Exchange and its surroundings. Gam
bling in produce was another sign of
the same spirit. The markets were
glutted, the warehouses filed, specu-
lative purchases were made as if prices
must always be on the rise, and by the
end of 1925 the ruin and CONSERVATION
were widespread. AS usual, upon the
Stock Exchange was concentrated the
wrath of those who had speculated and
lost.-Black1CoOd's Magazine.