Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-08-14
THE VAIL STREET RAID.

In connection with the market reports
to the brokers yesterday came this mes
sage:
sit is reported that Willard has failed for six
Millions
There was big raid of the bears. in
Wall street upon the Willard stocks and
Oregon Transcontinental and Northern
Pacific suffered severely-especially the
former. The report was evidently part
of the desperate game the bears
are playing to break the market,
as the regular news channels
bring no such intelligence. So serious an
event as the failure of the President of the
Northern Pacific could not take place
without the intelligence being authorita-
lively given to the public with the utmost
promptness, and the story can be set down
with the thousand and one Wall street
yarns which are deliberately concocted to
influence the market for few minutes IN
til their falsity can be ascertained.
Mr.. Willard has repeatedly stated that
he carried no Northern Pacific stock on a
margin but all he held was paid for. AS
a consequence, while the decline of the
stocks might depreciate his property it
could not, even temporarily, embarass
him. It is the operator who runs in debt
and is unable to respond to sudden calls
for payment, who goes to the wall.
In view of the fact that it is just ten
years ago since Jay Cooke, at that time
the central character in the Northern
Pacific enterprise, went down, and that his
failure was the precursor for violent
financial panic throughout the country,
there is naturally considerable supersti-
tious nervousness relative to such report
as that circulated yesterday. A moments
reflection, however, will convince any one,
that while Mr.. Wizards failure
would be disastrous, it by no
means carries in its wake such results as
followed the Jay Cook collapse of ten
years ago. The Northern Pacific, which
was then in its infancy, is now fixed fact.
Its line spans the continent, only awaiting
few finishin touches to have the con-
Meeting rail laid. In 1873 it was as If a
man had put in foundation for a
mammoth building, relying upon
the public to loan him the
money to complete the structure.
The failure of the builder i'm
paired public confidence and prevented
the supply of means to continue the work.
In 1883 the edifce stands completed upon
the foundation walls of 1873, and the fail
ure of individuals con nected Herewith
cannot remove the structure. The money
has already been supplied for the work
and while the property itself may change
hands or management, it nevertheless ex-
lists beyond the contingency of destruc-
ton.
While the reported Embarrassment of
Mr.. Willard is fiction, there would be no
occasion for any more serious alarm, if it
were true, than if any other man should
fail for corresponding amount. The
country at large is in healthy condition
The crops are good, manufacturing is &C
tive, our mineral resources are producing
wealth as usual, and there is every
reason for the prosperity of
legitimate business. There has been over
trading and over spec ulation, which has
already involved many and is liable to
bring down more, but these are episodes
which are constantly occurring without
wide spread disaster. Wall street is the
great regulator of speculation, but not of
the legitimate busin ess of the country.