The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-24
SPECULATIVE BUSINESS.

though not always to the advantage of the
one or the other, as the case may be. There
are, doubtless, some things in which we
might profitably learn from the example of
older countries while in other M alters the
methods pursued in this country are unques-
I tionably superior to those abroad. In most
matters of business the older countries are
more conservative, therefore slower and in
nearly every instance safer The possibility
of rapidly acquired fortunes in America is an
incentive to risk, and the channels OF specu-
lation are so much more tempt
ing over legitimate means that
they are in many instances mis-
taken for the real highways of commerce.
Send tyro to Chicago or New York to dis
cover the arteries of trade, and he would be
sure to locate them in the stock exchange,
the board of trade, or some such place. In
one sense he would be right. But if he were
asked to find the gulf stream in the great
ocean of business there transacted he would
| be unable to detect It, The handling of
stocks, bonds and produce at long range sug-
gested that the scheme might be utilized as a
gambling process, though safer term was
substituted. Ii the legitimate dealer
in wheat could buy and sell
that commodity in quantities without
! leaving his Office why might not anybody
buy and sell the same without seeing or car
ing to see it2 Why not follow its fortunes
from field to seaboard, the rise and fall OF its
value being provided for by what is known
as "margins?" In time this improvement
on legitimate trade became popular with
spectators that it exceeded in magnitude
the thing from which it sprang, and now, to
where one bushel of wheat is sold in reality
| fifty bushels are bought and sold only as an
index of determining winnings and losses.
1t is equally true of stocks
and bonds. Millions are put up
on their fuctuating values to where
thousands are put in as an actual investment.
| AS result of all this unreal business, in
which the fortunes of dealers rise and fall
| like tides of the sea, or rise like clouds from
velocity and destructive power of a tornado
as result of this, the manipulatOrs of
stocks and bonds find it very profitable to
use them to control the market. Certain
stocks are ''cornered" or 'watered," as the
condition of the market suggests. Artificial
values, above and below the actual value, are
given them from time to time, according to
the wants or needs of those in position
to control these things 1t is folly for small
dealers, or those outside, to speculate in
stocks and large majority of them know
it. They know, as well as they know any
thing that they can'have no possible inhu-
ence in the matter; that what they throw
into this financial maelstrom is perfectly at
the mercy OF the tides and that the ebb and
J flow of the tides are controlled in the inter
est OF very few. Their only possible hope
is to catch these artificial tides at a time
when they shall be carried to fortune The
evils arising from this source are too appar-
ent to require argument.
In England it is different. The rules of
the London Stock Exchange require, before
stock can be listed, that considerable
amount of stock shall be held in London by
London investors, in their own names, and
that a list OF the bona fide owners shall be
filed with the exchange when the stock is
listed. There is, therefore, no dealing in
margins and paratively no speculation.
Sales made on the exchange are bona fide
transfers for cash. The stocks listed are
actual investment stocks, and the listing is a
guarantee of the solidity of security. In
other words, the members of the Lon
don Stock Exchange are in position to
know somewhat of the probabilities of GER
tain stocks, and of the possibility of their
being manipulated for the purpose OF specu-
lation. In this respect the plan is wholly diff
ferent from that pursued in America. Here it
| is a question of no moment who owns the
stock. 1t may be bought" and sold" dozen
ownership Take Western Union telegraph
stock for example. During the year it is
bought and sold ten times over its entire
value, and the probability is that
not one quarter of it has
changed hands even once during
the twelve-month. 1t cannot be said there
fore, that its fluctuations arise from natural
commercial reasons, but rather that those in
position to do so depress or increase its quo
table value in order to form basis for spec
ulation, and to afford the means OF winning
the money of those who are willing to invest
ana take the attendant risks. 1t were wise