The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-02-06
WALL STREET TO-DAY.
By Henry CleNs.


ter. or as the fourth or fifth power of
number enlarges itself on its original in
teger. The square of two is four, but its
cube is eight, and so on, and concentra-
tons of money grow in the same way.
There is no chance work about this; j, is
the result of positive law. The few indi-
viduals who started the New York stock
exchange, ninety-one years ago, under
cottonwood tree in front of what is now
No. 90 Wall street, put together the integ-
raj number, which has ever since been
squaring itself. and cubing itself, and
fourth-powering itself, unit, it today
shares the destinies of thousands of mill
ions of dollars, and affects the means Of
livelihood of nearly 20 000. 900 Of American
citizens. year in and year out, without
cessation.
1t is the floating capital of the nation,
and to certain extent of the world, that
is all the time passing through Wall street.
and it is the habit OF floating capital to be
always increasing. and yet always parting
with some portions of itself. to enrich
those persons or conditions with which it
comes in contact. When a stream, con-
tinually growing into broader and deeper
river, flows through fertile country. it
does not rob the land, although it makes
its growth out of the lateral streams; on
the contrary Its tendency is to irrigate and
enrich the territory. The river does not
live for itself.
Nor does Wall street live for itself It is
a distributor. It's useful effects are I'M
limited by either creed or geography. 1t
has taken greater advantage for the gen.
eral good of scientific discovery than all
ho
electric wires have penetrated, the Wall
street broker has followed. The members
OF the stock exchange are through the
agency Of electricity in closer sympathy
with the great heart Of civilized humanity
than all the missionary and philanthropic
societies in the worlI. They are the great
cosmopolitans of the age. In practical
sympathy they eqcel all organized benevo-
lent associations. They have the mea 8,
in the first place, and in addition. their
Impulses have practical tendency and
are the outcome of practical minds.
A great many people come into the game
of speculation as it is carried on in Wall
street. and, not being we'll up in the rules,
or well informed as to values, or as to the
laws which govern fluctuations of values,
lose their money, and thereafter complain
them. When people have been robbed
they naturally apply to the police; but
those whom We mention, when advised to
take this course, qualify their assertions
and hint at conspiracy. When advised to
lay their case before the district attorney
they qualify again by saying that the Wall
street dea.ers are simply too smart for
them to cope with. This last assertion I'M
Col FIJI fr,,$ To- ia 80 -
which is that certain education and prac-
tice are necessary to carry out any plan or
win at any game. How often the infant
tumbies before it learns to walkl Still it
keeps on trying. and wastes no time in
complaining that it's elders are too smart
for it to cope with. Who ever won at
checkers Or chess on the occasion of the
first game?
The business of Wall street requires
long and close training in financial affairs,
so that the mind may be practically famil-
lar with speculative methods. If this
training begins in youth, all the better.
Among those with whom training has
thus begun many OF our most successful
men are to be found, although sometimes
the late corners achieve eminent success,
also. But you will find that the latter
have special genius for finance, and gen.
ius discounts all usual conditions, and is a
law to itself, while among ordinary intel
Iects early training is indispensable to
financial success.
In addition to the skill that Is ACQUIRED
by practice. there is also in the case OF GER
tain favored individuals lucky streak"
and in others an unlucky streak, which
the owners can not afford to overlook.
Some men almost always guess wrongly;
others guess right three times in five, and
the latter class are sure to succeed, because
when two operations neutralize another
two, and one remains profitable. the result
is the same as if only the one profitable
venture had been made; and a continual
recurrence of this means wealth, and
plenty of it. And the rule holds good vice
versa; and then ruin follows.
Ihave known o Wall street dabbler to
buy 100 shares of q certain stock in the
morning at 81. Before noon the quota
ton dropped to Al and he sold out. In an
hour it rose to 40 and he bought another
hundred. This lot he sold at 4679 just be-
fore o'clock. Such instances are llenty
as blackberries, and indicate how men
lose the use Of their brains when they at
tempt to be fnanciers without under
standing the first principles of finance.
There is an opinion mere or less pre-
valent that there is a continual danger of
corners" At the present time this is a
mistake. The financial arena of America
is too big now for corners. There is too
much floating capital. all ready for aggre-
CATION on short notice. If one man or ten
men should lock up ten or more millions
of legal tenders or specie in the New York
banks the transaction would hardly be no.
ticed. 1t would be extremely difficult to
repeat the great Northwest corner" of
1872 in which Jay Gould was the prime
agent, and out of which he is supposed TO
have made q large amount of profit.
Now and then some would-be reformers
of our social system treat US to sermons on
the iniquity of watering" stocks. But
without a single exception all great fnan-
ciers agree on one cardinal principle, viz.
that a property is to be valued by its divi-
dend-paying capacity, and in no other
way. And is it not better to take sides
with Commodore Vanderbilt, Jay Gould
and the Rothschilds than with Mr.. Sylla-
bub Cream-C Cheese, who gets has salary of
s., 900 a month for ladling out dishwater
rhetoric, and then doesn't earn it?
On this point hear the great Commodore:
what is stock-waterIng 1t is simply the
declaration of a man that his property is
worth more today than it was yesterday.
lie buvs a crowbait horse for $40 1t looks