Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-18
TIE GRAIN GAMBLING PROSPECT

TIE GRAIN GAMBLING PROSPECT.
The other day grain gambling was for
mally inaugurated at the San Francisco
Stock Exchange, and the President of that
institution made speech on the occa-
sion, in which occurred the following
suggestive remarks 1--WE all remember
4" how long it took before the business of
the Stock Exchange grew until they
chad sold the Comstoek over and
over again dozen or a score of
times within a year. And it will be the
''same with the Grain Exchange. 1t may
"a not come at once, but the time will come
"when we shall sell the entire crop of the
State many times over" Truly, these
are encouraging words, and it is indeed a
noble prospect to which the President OF
the Stock Exchange thus points. He
holds out the hope that at no distant period
the rage for gambling which has made the
institution over which he presides a
curse to the State, will include the
grain crop as well as the mines, and that
the sbarpers who, producing nothing them
selves, but wasting continually, are
more mischieyous than the Chinese, will
luxuriate in new market" of kind
as legitimate, as useful and as respectable,
as the game of three. card. monte. 1t is
any thing but a good indication that the
grain gambling scheme has been at length
begun. 1t shows that California is
still to be injured by the passion for
gambling in every form which the Stock
Exchange has SO sedulously cultivated,
and the unconscious way in which this
new evil has been announced proves how
completely the Generalization of the stock
market has pervaded business circles in
San Francisco.
The few feeble attempts which have been
made to justify the grain gambling enter
prise have only served to demonstrate the
absence of all legitimate grounds for it. The
absurdity Of the undertaking from bust.
ness point of view was admitted by the
speaker we have quoted when he
declared that the only possible outcome of
the transaction would be to sell the
"entire crop many times over" Out of
such business nothing can or is indeed
expected to issue but fat pickings for
brokers and capitalist Spectators. These
persons count upon making their profits
out of the ignorance and inexperience Of
the general public. They are in no
worthier occupation than the proprietors of
faro games, in fact. They are non.pro-
ducers. They add nothing to the wealth
of the community. They live by fleeing
their neighbors. Their whole energies are
devoted to diverting the earnings of the
producers from legitimate channels to their
own pockets. They are parasites and leeches
upon the body polite, and their infu'
ence is altogether harmful and bad. The
pretense that their betting stimulates COM
merce is utterly false. They are not
wanted in commerce at all, but occupy
there position as Legitimate as that of
buccaneers. They have as class done
infinite mischief to the people of the Pacific
coast, and they cannot point to single
really valuable result as the work of their
hands.
The Stock Exchange has for years made
| tho rich rinhar apd tho moor pnarar II
has been an open drain in which three
fourths of the surplus earnings of thou
sands of industrious and Woodworking
men and women have been sunk. Where
it has brought wealth to one it has en-
tailed ruin upon q thousand. 1t has ena-
bled little group OF rich men to bleed
the public at will. It has covered up
and protected the most colossal and
shameless frauds in the administration OF
mining property. 1t has served as a ma
chinery for swindling on grand scale. 1t
has repeatedly paralyzed industry, put a
stop to improvements, prevented the estab-
lishment of manufactures. ALI its ten
denotes have been sinister and immoral.
1t has operated as constant temptation to
| the weak and foolish. 1t has led men to
suicide and women to shame. 1t has de-
yeloped the most sordid, knavish, brutal
qualities among the men who have been
devoted to it. 1t has been the cause of
brothers robbing brothers, of fathers ruin
ing cons, of intimate friends lying to and
cheating one another, of the breaking up
of homes, of treachery and fraud and even
| murder.
1t has often been remarked that Cali
fornia did not advance nearly so fast as
many other States possessing fewer re-
sources. A potential cause of this slow
progress has been the gambling system
which Californians have cherished so blindly
and fatuitously. Millions of dollars which
ought to have been invested in manufact.
ures, in industries, in agriculture, or in
legitimate commerce, have been sucked
into the nav of the Unsuitable Stock Ex-
change, only to be employed thenceforward
in gambling All that can be said for the
business is that it encouraged lavish ex-
penditure for time. The few dealers in
luxuries prospered during the palmy days
of the Comstock; but the thousands whose
money paid their bills went ill-clad. 1t no
doubt produced meretricious glitter and
glare, such as characterized Paris during
the corrupt days of the Second Empire,
but it did not benefit the State, nor even
San Francisco
And now we are asked to jubilate over
the Inauguration of new gambling enter
prise, in which grain is to take the place of
mining stocks. We decline to do it. We
see in the Grain Exchange project nothing
but an attempt to renew the old plumber
ing programme which filed California and
Pine streets with INSCRIPTIONS adventur-
ers, and impoverished the public who dealt
in stocks. The producers will, if they are
wise, keep away from the new Exchange.
They have nothing to gain by gambling in
grain, They are no match for the keen