The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-01-13
jay Could. influence in wall Street.

A RECENT New York letter to the
Cincinnati Enquirer says: Wall Street
is awakening to the fact that Jay Gould
can do as he pleases with the stock
market. The quiet little man who slips
down to his Office in q cab, and slips
back again 70 his home, and is never
seen in public, never had the Stock Ex-
change under such complete control as
Of late. He engineered the great de-
cline in prices last spring, guided the
great boom Of early summer, and now
seems to have set out to depress them
again. He threw whole shower of
hand -grenades into the ranks of the
bulls to-day, and scattered them.
The trouo,e began with Western
Union. II had been said that Mr..
iouid and his party had OBJ aimed
enough stock to control the election and
insure a traffic arrangement with the
American Union. just as the street
was comfortably settled in this belief.
aod many were buying Western Union,
,xpecting to see it 60 up, the story was
tarted by Gould's own men that this
vas not so that the telegraph war wa
10 be opened In real earnest by general
| slashing of rates. At the same time
came the announcement, which was
| rue, that American Union stock is to be
Dut upon the Stock Exchange list to-
morrow at high figure. Private sales
we're made to-day at y and a, and the
report of the actuary, to be published
tj-morrow, will show that it can easily
earn Z per cent. on its capital of S20,.
JOO,O 600. The effect was to crush the
price of Western Union per cent. in
less than sixty minutes. 1t ratified
down from 10l 1-2 so fast that the tele
graph operators couldn't keep up with
| the sales. The favorable report o.
American Union and the sharp bidding
for it on the floor of the Exchange tha
is now promised for to morrow threatei
to depress Western Union yet further.
| 1t pleased Mr.. Could further to ham
mer the general list. So he started 6
new report that he would extend hi
Wabash system from Toledo to Buffalo
in opposition to the Lake Shore. Thi
was published in a morning newspaper
and the result was decline in LAKE
Shore, Michigan Central and New Yorl
. Central. Mr.. Gould is said to be shor
of Wabash, Hannibal and st. Joe, Kan
sas and Texas and Iron Mountain. II
help these along down he caused it to b
said, as by authority, that the Wabasl
war with Chicago, Burlington an
Quincy Is to be continued with increaset
} vigor. Burlington and Quincy tumblc'
from points even quicker than ha'
Western Union. The Wabash cUmpan
fell in line for 1-2 per cent. on the pre-
ferred. Iron Mountain was close be
hind them while Kansas and Texa
J closed up the rear q shade behind Han
, nibal and st. Joe. 1t was melanchol
procession for the bulls. Union Paclfi
got mixed in with the rest, and wer
; galloping down hill with them quartz
of point at q stride.
When Mr.. Gould wanted to knoc
= Erie and New York Central he had h
{ extension to the Lackawanna Railroa
organized, and he continues to hold
: over those stocks. When he wanted
o depress Western Union he organized I'll
American Union. When he wanted
menace the trunk lines, he built up b
e Wabash system. Now it is beginnin
to be plain to the street that he hs
e things in his own clutches. To depre
Western Union, it is only necessary fC
him to cut rates with the American Vi
u ion. To advance Western Union he b;
# only to cease the war. To put down Il
prices of trunk line stocks he has on
to open q railroad war, or form con
: pany ostensibly to build parallel road
Il To put up the price, he has only
cease the war, and give out that IL
e new parallel roads will not be built. L
q has so much wealth that he can ma
ipulate the money market at wi
e Gould will be, beyond all question, Il
If richest man in America in len years.