Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-16
aot1rnal a11b Gourier. :.
Saturday. Dec. 16, 1882.

RICH TALK BY TWO RICH MEN. The Senate committee which is engaged in
 Investigating corners and futures and their effect on thee commerce. and trade of the coun-
 try is drawing out some very interesting testi-
 mony. Among those who have appeared
 before the committee Messrs. Vanderbilt
 and Gould, who are supposed to know much about such matters anybody in this country.
 In his testimony Mr. Vanderbilt modestly declared that ths committee had got him on . subject which he did not know much about. He admitted that he had the credit of doing Q great deal in stocks, and said con- cerning his operations and speculation in general I am a frst-rate buyer of stocks or anything else. but an awful poor seller. I never yet bought stocks to speculate in I never sold stock short in my life You see 8 great many things in the newspapers every day about me which are not true Newspa. per reporters are very good men in their way. It appears to be part of their business, how ever, to get up sensational stories of one kind and another. I've nothing to say against them. They're very good men, some of them, and suppose they're only carrying on their business the sax2e the rest of us Only this morning read 8 lot of stuff in the newspapers about myself which was utterly untrue. I never bought stock in my life on which didn't put up 20 per cent margin or else the whole amount. There are hum dreds who buy without putting up any mar gin. I have to pay for their neglect in this particular. I'm like the man who pays his tailor. pay him for myself and for others who don't pay him at all. I'm very much prejudiced against bear of any kind. I go for upholding property of every kind. I'm down on the man who attempts to depreciate property of any kind. think the system of corners is depreciating and has bad tenden- cy. All this speculation affects the young men. It tends to idleness and numerous other evils. Not one man in ten goes into Wall street but he is sure to come out loser in the long run. Sure!
 All this is entertaining and, for all we know to the contrary, true. Perhaps Mr. Vanderbilt does not call it speculating when he buys stocks for rise, knowing, or be- lieving, that he can make them rise when he wants to. As for his hatred of "bears'' he has good reason for it if recent reports are to be relied on, for it has been claimed that he was interested in sustaining the stock market while they were pushing it down at rapid rate.
 Jay Gould, who testified yesterday, ad- mitted that he knew something about 'scor- ners'' and futures" He did not think the making of corners injured transportation in- terests. It gives the producers better prices. 'I,' said Mir. Gould, 'swas interested in the Chicago and Northwestern corner. It was selling at 75 or 8O I thought it cheap at that price. My brokers had orders to buy all that was sold, and when it got short the price ran up. It resulted in carrying the price up high, to 25O. Then it fell back again to 80. think I was induced to part with some at 25O. do not think that this corner had the slightest effect upon the com munity in general although it may have hurt the private fortunes of individuals" ;" Mir. Gould does not deny that he is specu- lator, and he declares his belief that specula- tion tends to do good, it brings money to this country. ''The freer your markets are the more freedom you give to capital. I would be very careful what restrictions put either on stocks or grain, for the reasons mentioned. The men who speculate are not those who plough the soil produce the grain. The men who speculate do so for the reason that it is their legitimate business If the Legislature were to say that dealings in futures were gambling, it would be gam bling; but until such time as legislation says it is gambling, shall not believe it so to be-
 This is frank, and MT. Gould goes still further and says he is in doubt whether to call the system of ''bucket shops'' public evil. People will speculate, he says, and he evidently believes in giving them opportuni- ties to do so According to the above decla- rations there is wide difference between Mr. Vanderbilt and Mir. Gould.