Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-19
THE GAZETTE: FT WORTH TEXAS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 49,

! poslte side 10 Whatever the customer ma
wish to do, betting with him, that he, III
customer, viii be wrong Thus, then, thei
| interests are Numerically opposite. TIL
so-called business" itself IS all between
| the customer and the 90 bucket shop
keeper, the result to be determined by wha
! the actual operations in the market MAJ
! be. They do not enter the market TO IN
| fiuence prices at all; they simply wage
| that those who are commercially in tn,
market will by their operations put price!
| up or down, as the case may be. This il
gambling pure and simple l fear thai
| bankers outside of Wall street do not always
distinguish between the ''bucket shop anC
the legitimate commission broker The diff
ference is as great dS that between Genu
inc bill and bad counterfeit. The bucket
shop keeper calls himself 4 stock broker
just as the chiropodist calls himself physi
clan or the dancing master calls himself q
professor.
Here the rnoraliSt may again come in and
say that form OF buying and selling is
gambling lin the cotton, produce or stock
eXchanges) in which the buyer is or ought
to be aware that he performs no social func-
ton when he comes in upon the market,
not to facilitate the distribution of com
modities, not to supply legitimate CONNER
cial ventures with the necessary capital,
but merely TO hold a nominal and temporary
the hope that 10y chance between his buy
ing and selling the price may rise
To condemn such operations, performed
by Impulsive. unthinking and res less Specu-
latOrS, may be 10 assert superior iudg-
ment Oh them as pursuing a losing princi-
pie OF action, but to say that the act of a
man who holds an interest in property
only an hour is morally different from a
man who holds il month or u year is.
contend, false logic and poor sense. The
man who buys Il hundred shares of stock
ana sells II the next day may have gamb-
ier's instinct and no higher motive than
that OF Il gambler, but GGyerthe asS his act
is commercial; whether he provided the
money IL whole or only in part, or bought
il entirely on credit, does not affect the
question. Somebody supplied the finds 20
pay for It, the stock was taken out of the
market, and certainly it is no crime to return
il to the market whenever the owner sees
fit. Neither does the facility for buving
and selling afforded by the margin plan
aiiect the morality Of an act. \ margin is
earnest money, ii is partial payment, and
though the word may have acquired Sug-
geSuYeness OF speculation peculiar to itself,
ii meals no more than an equity in mort
gagged property or deposit against real
Is tate purchase. The broker. acting under
instructions from his principal, buys a
hundred shares of Lake Shore stock, for
example, at Si25. costing $50, which ne
has to pay the seller. The principal may
"lsh to buy rs an interest Investment
IN expectation of money he is to receive
or he may Guy with view
to reselling later, and 10 secure the broker
ne deposits $1,000 win him. The broker if
his capital will permit. carries the stock in
his box in the safe deposit vault: but if his
own capital IS insufficient, as it usually is.
to pay for all the stock he may buy in this
way. ne takes the certificate to bank, and
putting, say $500 OF ms own money with
the 5000 deposited by his client. he borrows
the additional $4,000 paid TO the seller for
the stock. using it as collateral. Where,
pray, is there then anything very wicked or
out OF the run of ordinary commercial prac-
tice OF ethics in this marginal business?
Doubtless the very facility with which one
can undertake large operations tempts peo-
pie to engagements which often prove daa-
gerous, if not disastrous, but the same OBJ
lcclion may with equal force be urged
against the credit system in all kinds of
business. We should not Danish steam be-
cause it IS explosive, or electricity because
if embarrassed it becomes deadly Men do
lose money in Wall street; they often bank
rupt themselves. Sometimes they do it
more quickly there than in slower kinds CI
business, but the record of trade is bad any
way. II tells us that, roughly speaking. 50
per cent Of business men are unsuccessful
1t some time i'll their career. Men often
Ose money in Wall street because they as
sumo that they know more about the bust
ness than they do. Those who venture IN
hinkingly into Wall street without train
ng are ABOUT as sure to lose their money as
Wall street men would be to lose their
money if without study and accurate knowl-
edge they rushed into commercial bust
less merely because they saw people who
we're trained to it making large profits
Then again Wall street is often visited by
persons who are. SO TO speak, at 1.-The end of
heir rope" They have run down il their
'wn business, or used up their capital in
,Xtravagant living. and they go 10 Wall
treet to make a final plunge. They fail.
md quick observers eXclaim that Wall
treet wrought their ruin, when. as matter
i fact it was simply 4 financial hospital 10 |
which they went for relief. Wall street is |
lot exactly health resort. but to charge all |
1iSfOrturcs to it that are at last exposed |
here, would De as reasonable as to charge |
colorado Springs with all the mortality re- |
orded there. 1t has enough to answer for |
n its own account without eXaggerating its |
THE UTILITY TF THE MIDDLEMAN
Then as to the uselessneSs OF brokers
rhich some unthinking persons are inclined |
} claim. This :brings up the question of |
he use of the middleman who, because,
DrSooth, he does not himself indulge in
lanual labor and does not create with his
wn hands, any tangible objects, is regarded |
5 superiority. The middleman is an
gent of distribution; he brings capital and
lbor together; he brings the products of
9mote regions to our doors, and sends our
lrplus TO feed hungry men in the crowded
Opulations of Europe; he brings the prod
CT of the farm to the mill hand. nd the
roduct OF the factory TO the piow boy.
The stock broker is simply a middleman
no handles title deeds rather than the ma
rial substances back of them
1t should not be forgotten that one of the
reat and striking characteristics of mod
n economical methods is, that through
lie medium OF transportation facilities and
iddlemen. most distant parts of the world
e brought together, and the demand of
le section and the supply of the other are
lualized. In India. for example, fore
lie railway and the broker and the banker
ecarne fixtures there, it often happened
lat in one section Of the country famine
listed, while in another there was glut
supply.
The railway has eXerted most powerful
huence in breaking down the barriers
hlch kept poverty from plenty, but the |
ilway is mere thoroughfare, and it must |
I've agents prepared to make the exchanges
tween the sections of want aud supply,
ID hereis where the broker, the middle
an and the capitalist come upon the scene
perform most valuable service to the
mfort and the prosperity of mankind.
DEBTORS AND CREDITORS
know that it is very common to assail
pltal as hostile 10 labor, but capital is it.
II the product of labor. and to deny to it /;
natural fruit is to deny to labor its nat
Al reward. Capital is the result of absti-
nee, or labor stored up, and it IS that part |