The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-05-19

Considering the universal shrinkage in val
ues that has marked the course of the stock
market during the past two years, says the
N. Y. Electrical Review, the wonder is not
that many electrical stocks have shown a de-
probation but rather that SO many OF them
have stood up as well as they have, indicating
a confidence in this class Of securities which
the general market does not participate in.
Although but few electrical stocks are listed.
so that operations in them are not matters
of daily record, 1t is certain that the number of
investors in securities of this class is daily in
creasing, and that the feeling is abroad that
the profitable use of electricity in all directions
is destined to grow very rapidly in the imrne-
date future. Moreover, it ia felt that the
world has but made beginning in the uses of
electricity; that the work of the thousands of
inventors who have turned their attention to
il is surely destined to bear abunda Mt fruit in
the form of discoveries and inventions, which
will cheaper the production and application Of
electricity and make it available for practical
and profitable use in many WAYS not now
thought Of
The, fact that the arts which depend upon
the use OF electricity are practically all in their
infancy is matter that is to ba taken into
careful consideration in considering the future
of electrical stocks. The senior on the list. al
though it is younger than mon Of middle age,
is the electrical telegraph, and its experience
IN the matter OF public confidence may fairly
be taken as sample of what new enterprises
have to contend with. When once Professor
Morse had successfully worked his line be-
tween Baltimore and Washington, the feasible
tty OF rapid and accurate communication be-
tween distant points by electricity was settled
just as much settled as it is today. But only
very few took any active interest in the fact,
fact which has had more than any one sgen-
cy to DO with the rapid development of this
country. Looking back, one would say that
men Of ordinary intelligence ought to have
foreseen plainly enough that nothing could PIE
vent the telegraph's coming into general use
and that anybody ought to have considered it
favor to be allowed to invest in it in those
days Of small things. But mems hindsight
Is apt to be far more searching than their fore
sight, and SO it ohanced that the future OF the
telegraph, as pictured by Morse, whose only
mistakes, as the event has proved, grew out of
not being sufficiently sanguine, was looked up
on as the dream of visionary person of ques-
tionable sanity. They let the enterprise se-
verely alone Capitalists put their money under
lock and key, and thanked Heaven that they
were not fools enough to intrust it to a parcel
OF deluded enthusiasts, who thought they
could harness the lightning which franklin
had caught, and make 1t do their bidding.
To come down to times good deal more re-
cent, 1t seems as though any man might have
foreseen that the telephone was bound to come
into general use, and that when the original
shares-they gave seven for each of them af.
wards-were offering at from $50 to $50 each.
man of average intelligence ought to have
been smart enough TO take few. But thew
didn't. But when the new stock had been is
sued and began to climb, then they saw the
point, and then they bought.
We come now to the electric light, which
has been made the subject Of the most violent
opposition, not only because il was new, bat
because it interfered with established interests
which thought they saw in il formidable and
dangerous competitor. The fight against it has
been prolonged, stubborn and costly, and it's
opponents have repeatedly rssorted to the most
unworthy methods to carry their point But
meantime ithas steadily grown, and the public
at first unwilling to look with favor upon it, at
last insists upon its use. 1t has been greatly
improved and cheapened; it is being more rap
idly introduced than ever before, and that it is
to become the basis of an established and luc
rative business is an assured fact.
SO it certainly will be with other applica-
ttons OF electricity. They will be ridicaled
first, then opposed, then fought vigorously.
Butail the time they will be making their
way; all the time more and more people will
be learning their value and use; all the time
the circle Of those who look upon them as fav-
orable and desirable Investments will increase
and at length what was at first an experiment
will become legitimate and established bust
ness,
This much may certainly be said: As things
look today,n securities offering or likely to Of
er,present more solid inducements to investors
than these which represent electrical enterpris-
es proved they be established on a sound ba-
sis and managed on business principles.