The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1885-07-18
BrOadbrin's New York Letter

Special to the CARBON ADVOCATE.
The hole that the stock market
tumbled into two years ago is broad anC
deep--in fact, at the present time, it /,
doubtful If there is plummet Ions
enough to find the bottom. Into thai
yawning gulf have been swallowed 9
thousand millions of dollars, yes, more
than thousand millions--practicallN
enough to extinguish the National Debt
On Broad street stands the Stock Ex
change, which was erected few year.
ago when stocks were booming, Al
that time $40,0 900 were paid for a seat
and for whatp To enable a man tc
swindle his fellow-men with greater
facility than it could be done on the
outside of the ring. What else did they
get for their forty thousand dollarsi
Not the scratch of pen; not bit OF
paper as big as dollar bill; not a thing
that could be taken away from them al
any moment, without recourse, by the
managing committee of the Exchange,
The forty thousand dollars represented
no tangible property; it could not be
seized upon by any legal process known
to the law, for it was an intangible non
entity, a myth, without shadow of sub
stance, except as it was given shadow
or substance by the members of the
Stock Exchange. Aside from the extra
facilities it afforded you to rob your fel-
low-men, there was an insurance benefit
attached to a membership, which
amounted to the comfortable sum of
thirty thousand dollars. There are
| about 5000 members of the Stock Ex-
change, and at the death of one of their
number each member Of the Exchange
pays $40; this is Immediately handed
over to the widow, if there be one, or
the heirs; and in addition to this, the
Exchange allows the sale OF the seat, if
the member proposed is satisfactory to
the examining committee; so that under
favorable circumstances a man, even if
he pays $4,000 for a seat, gets his mon
ey back, with interest-or, at least, his
heirs or his widow profit by his invest
ment. But the seats that were eagerly
bought up few years ago at $40, ,OO0
can now be obtained for half that sum,
the present necessities of some Of the
members not allowing them to think of
waiting for post-mortem benefits.
These exchanges create nothing, they
give nothing-they merely wedge them
selves in between the producer and con-
sumer and take large slice out of EACH
Men who never did an honest days
work in their lives, by the aid of these
exchanges, are enabled to live on the
fat of the land, while the men off whom
they live go to the wall. Our virtuous
people are very much exercised now
about selling pools on race-courses, and
our new Superintendent of Police de-
clares that there shall not be gambling
house opened in the city, While our
police are turned loose upon these
small-fry would it not be well to look in
at the exchanges? On the race-course
man puts five dollars in pool on a
certain horse; if his horse runs a trlfle
faster than the others, he takes mp few
dollars more than he puts down; if his
horse fails, he loses his five or ten dol
lars, and that is the end of it. But
when he goes to Wall Street to gamble,
he can't do that; he must have hun
dreds to gamble with, and to get it
sometimes he will steal. 1t is quite i'm
material whether he buys railroad Sc
curities at the Stock Exchange, or min
ing shares at the Mining Exchange, or
petroleum at the Petroleum Exchange,
or wheat and corn at the Produce Ex-
change, or cotton at the Cotton Ev-
change-it is all gambling-not a tithe
OF the cotton, or corn, or wheat, or oil,
or stocks sold have any existence what
ever. The business of big gamblers,
like Gould, Sage, and others of that ilk
is to ''corner" the market. This "cor-
nering" is legalized robbery--robbery as
much as if man cracked your safe, or
knocked you down and rihed your poek-
cts. The process by which so many un-
fortunates have been ruined is very
simple, and though oft repeated. is just
as good for catching gudgeons to-day as
when 1t was first tried, A man, or a
party of men, inform themselves where
the stock of certain railroad is held; ;
they go quietly to work and buy up all
the stock they can lay their hands on
and what they cannot purchase they
make an agreement with the owners to
hold for certain time, and this the
owners are only too glad to do. as they
know that it means a rise without any
risk. Having secured every share, they
now so into the market, and buy right
and left for future delivery. After pur-'
chasing several thousand shares they,
call for the delivery of the stock, The
broker who sold weeks before, believing
that he could obtain livestock at any
time for less than the price he received
for it, rushes around to procure lit, and.
there is no stock to be hadl rhe-in-
side ring puts the price up, and the
lambs are compelled to settle. The
principle is exactly the same in oil, /,
wheat or cotton. The dollar you put
mp on margin is bet of one to ten, or
one TO twenty, that wheat will go zap or
wheat viii go down. In faro you bet
that such card will turn up in GER
tain place. In poker you bet that the
cards you hold are superior to the cards
held by your opponent. In the horse
race You bet that the horse you favor