The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-09-24
THE NEW YORK FAILURE.

The failure of ). V White is tie first gem
uine sensation which Wall street has had
for a long time. White has been for twenty
years one Of the boldest and most success
full operators in New York. 1t has been
supposed that he had realized fortune Of
three or four millions. He was a close
friend and ally of Jay Gould and Russell
Sage, and was believed to be in their secrets.
At one time he developed political ambi-
ton ana went to Congress, where he cut
rather sorry figure. lie was professor
of religion, and a member of Beecher's
church at the time OF the Tilton trial In
Wall street and on the Stock Exchange his
credit stood high. And now he has gone to
pieces, and though he will presently pull
himself together lie will never be power
any more.
He came to grief by attempting to corner
the corn market. How any man in his sane
mind could fancy that he could corral the
whole of an article Of commerce of which
the United States produces two thousand
million bushels every fall SURPRISES concep-
tion. 1t was like trying to bottle the ocean
OF box the grains of sand on the seashore.
Operators have often tried to corner wheat.
though. if we remember rightly, no one has
there are generally five times as many BUSH
els of corn as there are of wheat
to be handled in such an operation. III.
Secretan fancied he could corner copper,
ard completed his education on that point
more thoroughly than agreeably. Coffee,
sugar, lumber, have each in its turn been
the subject of corners, but if any money
was made by the cornerers the public are un-
Z In fna fN1NE in fhAsfr "a 10
lations has always been the same: they
have been unable to reckon accurately the
invisible supply. They could figure the Wis
IDLE supply and make arrangements to han
die it. But there was always further sur
plus somewhere which they could not
estimate, and which turned up Just at the
moment when their capacity of absorption
was exhausted.
Spectators who come to grief in corner
ing operations are entitled TO less public
sympathy than gambler who is broke"
Where they deal in articles Of general con-
sumption, like wheat or corn or coffee, sue
cess for them would involve an increase in
the cost of living for the people at large. If
Whites corner in corn had succeeded, the
price of corn, which is the staple food of
man and beastin a large section of the cOun-
try. would have gone up; his profits would
have come out OF the pockets Of the poorest
class of persons in the central States. He
proposed to take their pennies 10 swell his
millions. His idea was to enrich himself at
the cost of the poor
His scheme was not even calculated to
benefit the producer of corn, for in such
cases the Spectator does not begin TO put
up the price until he has secured, as he sup
poses, control of the marketable supply 1t
is no part of his plan to take the farmer into
partnership. On the contrary, his chance
of making money depends on his
buying cheap from the farmer in Or
der to sell dear to the consumer. And
while a few farmers do often get uneX-
pectedly good prices for their crops during
tie manipulation OF corners, the ultimate
effect of such operations is always injurious
to the producing interest. A corner gives
black eye to the article cornered. The long
depression in the wheat market at Chicago,
which even the prospect of famine in Eu-
rope seems insufficient TO dispel. is directly
traceable to the corners which followed
each other in 1.-THE pitt eight and ten years
ago People are afraid to deal in an article
which is subject to artificial manipulation:
Buoyancy departs from the market, leaving
nothing 10 sustain prices but hand-t0-mouth
consumption. Wheat would never have
ruled so low as it has during the past six or
eight years il it had not been for the wild
speeulations OF the previous decade.
Such men as S. V. White are sad objects
of contemplation. They are gifted with
more than average intellect and possess
more than a fair share of wealth. But their
lives are spent in no useful pursuit. They
pass their days in trying TO take other peo-
pies money Mt a game which is about as
hazardous and uncertain as faro. They
build nothing, they add nothing to the
worlds stock of property or knowledge
When they die the world loses nothing, as
it had gained nothing through their efforts
while they were alive, and there seems to be
| law that not one in hundred Of them es-
capes tie doom of bankruptcy at some pc
Iiod or other of their career. The list of
spectators who could say on their death
bed that they died indebted to no man can be
ba