New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-16
CAN CORNERS BE PREVEETEDi

The testimony before the Legislative Com
mittee on Corners was unusually interesting
on Thursday. Mr.. Vanderbilt in his testimony
gave reasons for the very strong prejudice
which he has often shown against men who
sell what belongs TO others. The practice, he
stated, was injurious to the railroads it gave
them at times more freight than they could
handle, and at other times no freight at all.
broke up the natural movement of products
according to the seasons and the legitimate de-
mand, stopped foreign trade altogether at
times in important products, necessitated need
less and most cost, and demoralizing delays in
other branches of trade when all lines are
crowded with a kind of produce that has been
artifcially advanced in price, implanted and
fOstered III young men the gambling spirit, TO
the ruin of very many, and deprived all bust
ness in a measure of its solid and legitimate
character. At the same time, Nr. Vanderbilt
said that an attempt to cOnfLe transactions to
properly actually delivered would be like a
Sunday Law prohibiting cabs and carrages-it
could never be enforced. He spoke particu-
larry of what he saw in Europe when grain
was cornered heIe-hOw it was forwarded from
other markets all over the world TO meet the
demand, while this cOuntry Jailed to sell It's sur
plus. Yet he did not see how the evil could be
removed by any legislation.
The testimony of Mr.. Vanderbilt is interest
ing not only because of his large business
knowledge, but because it expresses the opinion
of large number of substantial men in every
branch of business. They see the evil clearly
and feel it keenly, but do not see how it can be
remeded, and know that extreme laws on such
ii subject are apt to break down in enforcement
and do more harm than good. Reliance upon
public opinion is idle, so long as the public
courts the man who makes money by gambling
as much a. the man who makes it in any other
way. There is no remedy, business men are
apt to conclude; the nlschievOus practice
must be tolerated as a necessary evil which it
is highly proper for newspapers and clergymen
to denounce, and for legislatures to sternly in
yestigate, but which no practical man ever
expects to see removed.
Is it true, however, that no legislation can
reach this evil I Or is il true that any legiSla-
ton to remove ii will so restrict proper and
legitimate speculation as to do more harm than
good 4? 1t must be granted that speculation,
Within certain limits, is helpful beth to pro-
ducers ard consumers. As Mr.. Vanderbilt
says, man who has cnrn at the West which be
can deliver here in January needs facilities for
selling it before it arrives and it is for the pub
lie interest that he should have such facilities.
So of the man who sells cotton before it has
been picked, or iron rails before the iron ore
has been taken from the nine. But all these
stand on a very different footing from him who
sells what lie has not got and never expects to
get Is it really quite impossible for Govern
nent to make and to enforce a distinction SO
easily comprehended7
Contracts to sell, made by manufacturers
who are known to be producing certain |
lrtice, or by farmers or planters who have in |
heir fields the product sold. stand on a sep |
srate basis and can easily be excepted or |
specially pro sidtsl for. Sales Of property of any
Kind which the seller or his principal actually |
Possesses though at the time of sale it may ne
n bank vault IN London in an elevator in
Dakota, on Il ranch in Texas or in the safe of
IN express company in San Francisco, can be
made just as free and ready as they are now.
The contract of salr, made by broker or
banker here. may have for its warrant tele-