The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-05-27
Wall street Methods.

st. Louis Republic.
The Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr., who
can talk about as plainly as any
minister in this city on secular
subjects, was asked Saturday just
before his departure for Cape
Charles, Va, where he goes to join
his family, what he thought of the
recent developments in Wall
street. Mr.. Dixon said unhesitat-
ingly:
"The recent furry in Wall, street
with its incidents and failures,
with its high rate of interst and its
threatened panic, again brings be-
fore the public the fact of this sore
in the nations life. The business
of Wall street, meaning the stock
exchanges, is the indication of Il
national blood disease. 1t is
chronic; it is constitutional. Here
is the spot where it breaks out
with violence that disturbs in its
reaction the whole body.
"In my humble opinion, the day
is certainly coming in the history
of America, when the mass of the
business now transacted on these
exchanges and called legitimate,
will be understood at it's real
worth, and will be suppressed, as
are other crimes, by law. Gam
bling is crime. 1t is u crime that
damns the whole man that en-
cages in it and destroys tho COM
munity that tolerates it. And
gambling is gambling, whether it
takes place in Daly's gambling
hell, in bucket shop or on the
floor of the exchange. Our courts
have long decided that contracts
on these exchanges made on
marginal transactions and all 9TH
er transactions in which similar
principle is involved are gambling
pure and simple; that they cannot
be enforced in law. This being
true, they ought to be suppressed
by law.
"Panics are produced and untold
ruin brought to thousands of homes
in the midst of national prosperity.
What reason is there under Heav-
en- to-day for panic in the money
market, except that some coterie
of scoundrels beneath the surface
have some axe to grind in produc-
ing panic. OF all the battles on
the earth none are so utterly brut-
al, so utterly devilish as this battle
on these gambling exchanges for
supremacy, for money. War on
on the field of blood is pastime
compared to it. Men in martial
war do not strike a wounded
enemy. No nation, not even
Turk, will fire on hospital.
"a wounded friend is the supreme
opportunity of your Wall street
gambler. When q man is disabled
in the financial world then is the
time to fleece him. Not only so,
but these scoundrels watch their
opportunity to wound their friends,
and then, when in the fight they
have fallen, they spring OH their
prostrate bodies and rob them Of
the very clothes on their back. A
man who wrecks train is esteem
ed a villain for whom hanging is
an honor. Lynching is too good
for such q man. The whole COM
munity turns out in mass and
scours the woods and fields to find
him. but man who lays his
plans and by lies and chicanery in
this gambling center wrecks
train, not simply one train, but the
whole road, impoverishing thous-
ands of stockholders, bringing sui
eide and poverty and despair to
hundreds of homes-this man is
crowned the Napoleon of finance.
He pockets his millions and be-
comes thereafter u magnate."
Mr.. DiXon's remarks stirred up
the tinanciers in "The Street."
Henry Clews seemed to take the
Parsons dissertation as personal
affront.