The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-05-30
ONE CAUSE OF BUSINESS UNCER-
TAINTY.


The word uncertainty pretty nearly de-
scribes the most prominent characteristic of
the business situation at the present time. A
large surplus of idle capital is gathered into
banks or invested in bonds, awaiting future
developments. Very few are able to satisfy
themselves concerning the coming course of
events. The general features of the CONNER
cial outlook are favorable, and there would
were it not for the fear or distrust of 'capi-
tai combinations, /" " syndicates," and specu-
lators. The greatest commercial danger
hanging over the country to-day springs from
the power of rich men to combine and do
what they please with the markets and the
market values. Everybody knows there is
class of men among us who don't care the
snap of finger about the general welfare of
the community or the state, and who never
think of working for -" the greatest good of
the greatest number" themselves included,
but whose sole and supreme idea and purpose
in life is to get rich and make money fast,
without any regard to the means employed
or the results to the unfortunate victims of
their manipulation. AS in the old fable of
the spider and the fly, these reckless and
hardened operators get up their web-like
schemes in secret, set the trap cautiously and
invitingly, and then stand at the entrance
and induce each passer-by to invest and lose.
For, as in the fable so in real life {: He who
"goes up that winding stair " to the fancied
parlor of realization, never comes down again
as we'll off as when he went up. And the
feeling of uncertainty which these men create
in the minds of the public is one of the chief
causes of our financial evils
For example A huge syndicate is said to
have been formed at the east to advance the
price of railway stocks, but thus far the gem
eral public seem very 10th to come into the
buying ring and take hold, lest the reported
supporters of the market take a sudden notion
some fine day to step aside and let the poor,
deluded victims find themselves stranded high
and dry on the top of descending scale of
prices. No one expects to find the remotest
shadow of anything like honor or principle
among spectators, for the avowed policy of
the whole fraternity is we'll expressed in the
saying "dog eat dog" or every man for him
self, first last, and always. And as the
movements of these manipulators are never
known to anyone outside the clique, SO no
one but this favored few know what to do, or
what is going to be done. Hence the general
feeling of uncertainty in the public mind,
which makes every one who has money to
invest timid and hesitating. And what is
true of railway stocks is equally true of many
other markets. No one knows whether to in
vest in grain, provisions, dry goods, real es-
tate, or manufacturing interests of any kind,
because of the uncertainty arising, or liability
to arise, from the operations of combinations,
syndicates, and manipulators.
The monumental public, the consumers,
the poorer and non trading classes, are now
absolutely at the mercy of the rich, except in
one respect. No great business can be car
ried on without labor, and this mercantile
commodity the workingman alone can fur
nish. 1t is, in fact the only thing which he
has to sell, and the rich man is compelled to
come to his market to buy this species of raw
material. But while the capitalist is giving
employment to the laboring classes at a fair
rate of wages, he can turn right about and
help manipulate and enhance the price of
everything which the workman is obliged to
purchase, moral anomaly which is often
witnessed 1t is small wonder, then, that
workingmen combine to protect and regulate
the only thing which is under their control,
the only market where they have any power
over prices They are only following the ex-
ample of other business interests, and who
can blame them
1t seems to be law of nature that the big
fish shall eat up the little ones in rivers and
lakes, but in organized civil society it is
strange that something cannot be done to
stop or curtail the power of INSCRIPTIONS
capitalists in a country like ours to work
mischief among the legitimate markets of the
world by grasping conspiracies and desperate
maneuvres. Just so long as rich men can
do anything they please with any kind of
property they may chance to seize upon,
without any hinderance or laws to make
them afraid, just SO long will this paralyzing
feeling of uncertainty from time to time en-
barrass the wheels and machinery of regular
and legitimate prnoracc oil dapo rim, o. MTG IF