Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-19

condemn them for their confidence in US Il
| a time when we could obtain credit no
where else III Europe, and to aSsail then
with epithets for having made money on
of our necessities. They did not create III,
necessities: they relieved them. So in the
case of our great Western territory, which
has been developed by the railroads which
Eastern capital has built through it: by The
money loaned to its farmers for purposes Of
improvement; by the splendid structures
put up in Western cities BY Eastern capt
tai; by the capital contributed to the devel
opnent OF Western mines and factories anC
warehouse and financial institutions
| Whenever bright business man in the in
terror concejves a new IDEA or project in.
volving the use of capital fer its develop
ment. he Immediately comes to Wall street.
the Mecca of all promoters, to procure
funds TO achieve his desire. = country
without capital is like factory without
| tools Of course we can all recall the time
| hundred years ago when laboring
men resisted the introduction OF
labor-saving machinery, and the
Blackburn spiSners and weavers
destroyed the jenny and al its belongings,
and drove Hargreaves himself from his
home But the economy of the division of
| labor, the concentration OF skill and the
| application OF the forces OF nature to pro-
| dUctiou under the direction of capital and
! machinery, have vastly augmented the
aggregate output OF the neceSsaries Of life,
| ana increased the proportionate part which
each Individual may claim for himself.
Though this may seem like diversion
from the theme which | have had chosen
for me, it really is part of the philosophy
of things relating 10 Wall street, which
deals in the shares OF the reat corporations
which bring about these results. The moral
philosopher may regret that the ponderous
forces OF modern capital and machinery
a
artisan, but since the sum total Of material
wealth which may be divided among men is
vastly auGmeuted by the pres ent order of
things, ii is folly TO think of going back
ward to primitive methods, 20 the canal
boat and stage-coach and spinning-wheel
and country forge Of our ancestors.
THE COMMUNITY OF INTEREST BETWEEN WALL
STREET AND THE COUNTRY.
Some demagogues have sought to create
the impression that there resides in Wall
street :. moneved interest antagonistic to
all sections of the country and thriving on
the niSfortuneS of Gl!. This is so ridicu-
lousy false that | surely have but to state
the facts to insure an Immediate denial of
such misleading assertions.
When a killing frost blights farm in the
Northwest or a destructive flood submeTges
q plantation in the South, Wall street takes
immediate note of the fact. and if general
damage be done to either section, all the
railway and other corporate bodies located
therein whose shares are held or dealt in are
Immediately deprecated IN value. The de-
struction OF property by The great Chicago
fire was estimated to have deprecated
stock exchange securities 800, 600. On
the contrary, if crops are large and prices
of farm products high, the values of these
properties Reject the prosperity of the az
ricultural regions. II is sometimes alleged
that corruption fund exists in Wall street
Il
the country. This is palpably absurd. for
nowhere is to be found i wider diversity OF
views as to political and financial measures
than within the purlieuS of the stock
exchange. Republicans, Democrats. Mug
wumps, free traders, protectiOnists, single
standard men, bl-metaliSts and creditors,
all shades of opinion and sentiment mingle
there. There are some very rich men who
are purely creditors, and there are some
very poor men who are purely debtors, but
there as elsewhere most individuals belong
to both classes az the same time. The
banker and the broker keep looks, with the
debit side balaucil G the credit side. The
banker owes his depositor about the sum
total that the borrower owes the banker,
and so ii is with the stock broker His
clients owe him and he owes the banker.
This business interest, II it is to be para
mount in determining political opinion,
keeps the Wall street man evenly poised in
lninu ana judicial IN character.
Doubtless there is agreement there. how |
ever, that contracts should be kept, that |
property rights should be respected, and |
that honesty should rule in all the relations |
of life, and not repudiation and chaos
Finally, the reflection should not be over |
looked that Wall street can adapt itself to |
changed conditions more readily than al |
most any other class of business. so that it |
has no exceptionally powerful motives TO |
JmnpSp of i6a1G -hn t3yr
II legislation against capital and honesty be |
passed, the capital viii migrate as IL did |
from California when the hoodlum and the |
Sand-lot acitatCr exercised their baneful |
sway over politics.
THE FARMER FULLY SHARES WITH THE RAIL
WAY OWNER IL NATIONAL PROSPERITY.
Wall street itself is largely composed of
clpals, who may be a Western farmer
Southern planter, New England manu-
facturer, as well as local capitalist. The
shares of the great corporations are widely
distributed; there are over twenty-five
thousand stockholders in the PENNSYLVANIA
or about ne-elevcnth of the total
number of shareholders in all the national
banks of the country If the Western farmer
u the Southern planter thinks that the
'ailroad running though his section is max
NC more money than ii should, let him
economic aud invest his accumulation in
he property and thus become beneficiary |
II its prosperity. As q matter of fact, how
,ver, experience and statistics show that the
'ailway corporations of this country have
lot acquired an undue proportion of the re-
ward of industrial and commercial growth
turing the past thirty or forty years. Ac-
ording TO ''POors Manual" the total CAPT
al investment in railroads in 1890 was So
~, 600, 900 the gross earning being los per
ent, and net earnings 81 per cent. Thus
ver two-thirdS of all the earnings went 10
abor and supplies. the capital getting for
IS share less than g. per cent, whereas in
England where lower interest rates
enerally prevail, the return on railway
apital is 40 per cent. The reward of
apital should be proportionated to the risk
involved, and it is manifestly tyraUnical !
buse of legislative authority to limit the |
interest returns on the exploitation of new
ailway or industrial enterprises to the rate
urreutly received on old-eStabished and !
ested forms OF investment. The truth is
hat labor and legislation have been en- |
reaching so upon railroads that if proper |
hargeS for maintenance were made much |
+ the present small apparent profit would
e swallowed up. The Western director
lys that the railroad has ''watered' its
took; that its original cost is fully repre- | {
anted by its bonded Indebtedness, and that
ne capital stock upon which il would paw a
ividend if it could. is all fictitious and !
epresents no value expended. This is true {
erhaps in most instances, but is it not
qualify true that the Western farmer bought
is land originally at a few dollars an acre,
nd that Its SO-called 'unearned increment"
e., increase in value without any act of | |
S own, has been much greater Z
to his expenditure and | I