Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-05-23
CUT OFF rHr DEAD pRArcHEs


bled as it had not before since the dark
days of 1873, when business was nearly
suspended and when fortunes were
swallowed up in the twinkling of an
eye. Since 1873 it has not required
much of an effort to create an excite
ment, and so when the firm of Grant &
Ward failed for ten millions Of dollars
and the country could not understand
of what the firms capital originally
consisted, or how it was possible for
any legitimate business to fan sudden
" behind TO such an alarming extent.
there Immediately grew up an uneasi-
ness. doubling of bankers and brokers
generally.
Last Thursday the crash came, and a
dozen or more small brokers in New
York closed their doors. Fisk & Hatch,
leading firm of brokers, and the most
extensive dealers in government securi-
ties on Wall street, gave up the ghost.
Donnell, Lawson & Simpson, the well
known bankers, suspended. The Met
ropolitan bank closed its doors.
No sooner had the news flashed across
the continent than the west became
alarmed and wanted its money.
Two OF the firm of d. l.. & s. were
western men, from Missouri, and the
bank had succeeded in becoming the
correspondent for large number of
western banks-an hundred in Nilsson
ri, anG as many in Kansas and besides
was the fiscal agent of the state of Kan
sas. Of course the announcement of
such failure caused trouble, At st.
Joseph, Missouri, the State Savings
bank largely owned by DonneIl, was
compelled to suspend, though it had al
ways been considered safe. At Kansas
City considerable run was made on
the banks, and as matter of self pro-
lection they agreed to pay twenty per
cent. of all demands, and give certified
checks for the balance due depositors.
This arrangement was satisfactory. and
no serious inconvenience was expert
enced, though from this distance it is
apparent that there was some trembling
INDUCED ip by the Kansas City institu-
tions.
BY Saturday tie excitement had about
subsidized, and up to now no new fail
ures have been reported from the east.
1t is safe to say that the time is not
far distantwhen the system of gamb-
ling in stocks, now the life of Wall
street, will be entirely changed. 1t must
be broken up, or only confined to the
class who would gamble on the weather.
or events as uncertain. Sound business
men are fast finding out that they can
invest their money in the great and
growing west, and besides having it Sc
cured by actual property, they can de-
rive a reasonable dividend on their in
vestment. The time has past when the
capitalists of the east would as soon
think of loaning money on the fish in
Boston harbor as on the cattle grazing
over western plains. But outside of
cattle the west can offer hundreds of
other investments absolutely safe.
These will, in time, take up the surplus
money now being recklessly thrown
away on the uncertainties connected
with stock speculations. The values of
railroad stocks and bonds must be set
tied municipal obligations must be re-
deemed or refunded into paper bearing
lower rate of interest, which interest
must be promptly paid. Everything in
the shape of securities must be trimmed
up, rewritten, and their exact vaIua-
tions known.
The country is too prosperous, the
producing classes too independent, the
real capitalists too particular to longer
indulge in guess work when seeking in
vestments. The sooner every rotten
broker, every unsound bank, every snide
financial Spectator is forced to the wall
the better.
We hope to see the list of Wall street
gamblers that are compelled to suspend
run up into the thousands of names.
We hope TO hear of the failure of every
banking institution that permits its
funds used in buying futures or in
monkeying with wild cat" stocks.
When the rotten branches of this i'm
mense financial and commercial tree
have been cut off, new life must he the
fortune of the remaining members.