Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1893-06-08
Editorial Comment.

| IL Ufdy DO Sdtu Win lEulDs VIC Luinh.
that our necessitsted gold exports have
not been caused oy the fault of anybody.
Being a debtor nation, and having
bought recently more than We have
sold, naturally gold might be- expected
to go out. especially if there was for
eign need therefor sufficient to rather
more than offset our superior invest
ment advantages, such as indeed was
the need of Austria in rehabilitating
her internal monetary system Appar-
emily the ebb and dow of gold must be
expected to vary as European crops
may be good or poor, or other inciden-
tai changes may occur that are depend
ent upon other than human factors.
An outward flow OF gold in consider
able volume will ordinarily have for it's
sequence q restricted money market.
Monetary tightness is generally oumu-
lative, dependent for its increasing vigor
upon the number and magnitude of
financial failures.
Illustratively. as fire is fed by fuel
so q tight money market. panic, 10
fed by the failure of needy concerns.
This applies to legitimate enterprises.
in the sense that intrinsically they are
untainted by fraud; but the effects that
are terrible to the commercial world
generally come by the bursting of stock
companies whose substance, il such it
may be called, 10 mainly fraud. by the
powerful enginery of the stock ex-
change. Not only is there monetary
loss to the lambs loaded with such
stocks, but there is the still worse loss
in the matter of the loss OF confidence
in the general integrity OF men by the
revelations concerning the fraudulent
character of the bursted concerns.
From such consequences the general
business world, the legitimate business
world has in considerable degree the
power of protecting itself We mean
ny that that as citizens they should see
to it that such legislation be enacted as
to effectually prevent such occurrences
10y preventing the formation of COM
panies with stock mostly or wholly
water. Corporations owe their exist
ence wholly to law. they are all subject
to state regulation. The general theory
by which they are permitted to exist is
that the public convenience will be pro.
NOTED thereby. II some are got up,
and many are, with the specific pur-
pose of using each share certificate as
false token on tho stock exchange. ii is
obvious that the true legal theory is set
at naught. Apparently the thing to be
done is to institute as close and vigor-
Gus a preliminary examination with re-
speet to the details of the organization
of all companies as is exercised by
State and Federal authorities in the
organization of State or National Banks,
respectively. 1t is a disgrace to the in
telligence of the age that such colossal,
fraudulent companies. so we'll known
as TO need no naming. can be framed,
authorized and set forth TO prey on
people; and eventually TO go down to
ruin with such force as to paralyze the
business of nation, put out engine
hres. and introduce want aud squalor
into the homes of those who labor, and
all under the guise of law, and the law,
forsooth, with dreadful irony superim-
posed upon the theory that the public
good and convenience is to be promoted
under its provisions. These things are
preventable, obviously; certainly then
there ought to be action.
Realizing the preventability OF such
effects, il in degree dlsgusts the writer
to read that the attorney general of this
that or the other state is about 20 bring
suit in some proper forum to nullify the
charter or the like of some company or
trust. This of course comes after the
lambs are in the coral. Only q little
prudence, only little foresight is re-
quired to prevent the formation of such
frauds, and that should be exercised,
and the possibilities for evil prevented
What we have said above not only re-
veais the source in a large degree of
panics. 1t indicates also the methods
by which our State government, our
Legislators, have permitted, nominslly
under warrant of law, the robbery by
false tokens of countless people. The
insiders have. aided by the machinery
of the stock exchange, accumulated
millions, have in degree become .
menace to the public well-being. We
might excuse our legislators of the past
because OF ignorance: They stood in
an age whose tendencies they knew not,
whose unfoldings warned them by nc