The morning call., 1892-08-24
EXIT THE STOCK EXcnaNGE.


One of the signs of the times is the au-
nouncement that the members of the Stock
Exchange propose TO sell their building If
they can find purchaser at a suitable price.
This is public notice to the world that the
business in mining stocks has about come
TO an end. and that what remains Of 1t can
be transacted in the streets. The Stock Ex-
change as a body corporate does not pro-
pose TO wind itself up. Corporations rarely
die But it has no longer any use for a
costly local habitation and home, and the
bulk of the members think that the sum
represented by the building would be better
bestowed in their pockets than retained in
the shape of an edifice.
The Stock Exchange mas been one Of the
monuments Of San Francisco. 1t is just
thirty years since brokers organized an ex-
change, and about sixteen, if memory
serves, since the present building was
erected. 1t has been memorable edifce.
Millions changed hands there each week
for a series of years Thousands of men
have won fortunes there, and, with few ex-
ceptlons, have lost them again. Dust they
were and TO dust they have returned. The
business of the Stock Exchange engendered
| a spirit OF gambling, which for a time
diverted the public mind from legitimate
! business and from the development of the
| State, and the fluctuations in values which
made man rich one day and poor again
| the next were not by any means an IN
mixed benefit to the State.
Between the extraction of gold aud silver
from the earth and the traffic in shares in
mines there is no necessary connection.
The mining would go on just as we'll if
there were no gambling in shares. AT the
present time there are mines in this and
the Deighboring States which are yielding
handsome monthly dividends to their
owners, and We. whose names are never
heard on the Stock Exchange. Who can
give current quotation for Ontario and
Anaconda? But the establishment Of an
exchange for dealing in mining shares en-
abled the owners of mines TO realize far
more ont of them by trading with the public
than they could have done If their profits
had been limited to the difference between
the value of the metal they got out and
the sum it cost to get it out. The project
appealed to the gambling instinct which
seems inherent in the human breast
Everybody wants 10 make a thousand
| dollars by an overnight investment Of a
hundred.
be subjects of speculation. No one can see
into the bowels of tie earth, nor tell how
long vein will last or how rich or poor its
ore Will grow. 1t is pure matter of chance
ana luck, like the turning of the king or
the appearance of a straight flush. When
the Comstock lode was in course of develop
ment bonanZas were liable TO be struck here
there. and everywhere; people whose tenn
permanent inclined them to tempt fortune
we're impelled TO buy, just as the same class
to-day are impelled to buy lottery tickets.
1t was desperate business. OF the men who
knew most about the mines and their
development the bulk lost money when they
dealt in shares. 1t is only the few who
bought what they knew TO be good, and
held on in spite of specnlations. who came
away with money at the last
The stock business really died II years ago
when the last bonanza in Con. Virginia pc
tered. But its final extinction was delayed
by hope. As the indictments say, the in
dustry languished, and languishine did live
The brokers sustained life by encouraging
outsiders to buy on the strength of expected
discoveries, and thus gradually for many
years the Stock Exchange has been a sink
into which mon ey-makers in lucrative call
ings have poured their surplus coin. When
the yield of the mines became so light that
there was not enough to divide between mills
and mines, the owners Of the former resolved
to take it all, and they have done so for
| years. Every now and then some disgusted
! shareholder in the mines makes a vigorous
| kick but it hardly ever comes to anything
| the pToveTb OF the earthen pot which went to
sea with an iron pot comes into play. The
mines are now run for the benefit of few
| mills, and as the latter are not represented
| on the Stock Exchange that Institution
| closes its doors for want of something to
gamble in.
1t has been observed that the gambling
mania, like other epidemics, is Intermittent.
1t will break out with great violence and
rage for years, and then it will subside and
speculation will appear 10 be dead Be-
| tween the panic Of 1857 and the outbreak OF
the war there was so little business on the
| New York Stock Exchange that money
| brokers took to other callings; in 1853 or
| 1864 speculation was so active that seats in
| the board were worth $4,000 Now the ex-
| change is passing through another period of
dizziness and the brokers are starving So
| here seats in the Exchange have sold as
| high as $4,000; now their only value de-
| ponds upon what the brokers can get for
| their house.