The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-29
FINANCES DISCUSSED.
The Panic and Savings Banks.-Mr. L. b.
bennett Makes an Address at 1.-THE Meet
ing of the Cumberland Pomona Grange

The Pomona Grange met with the West
brook Grange Saturday in the latter's
new hall, which was well filed. Worthy
Master F. d. Scammon presided. Ad-
dress of welcome was made by Mrs. J. II.
Cover and responded to by Peter Stewart
During the morning hour the follow
ing question was discussed: >" Resolved,
that the people of our rural towns do
not realize as much comfort at the pres
ent time as they did so years ago. The
question was discussed by j. Humph-
rev, J. W. Barstow, Charles Stewart,
Peter Stewart, Mrs. AK. Nash W. H.
Vinton, j. Aver and DIR. Briggs and
Others. The recitations were by Miss
Lillian Lowell Miss Nellie Shenault, Miss
Barbour, Miss Ada Gowen, Mrs. JIM.
Hawkes.. The Westbrook Grange fur
nished the music.
The next meeting will occur the fourth
Wednesday of September with the Pleas
ant River Grange
At the close of the ladies' hour l.. b.
bennett addressed the meeting upon the
present panic ..and the savings banks !"
The following is an extract from Mr..
benefits address:
The depositors of the savings bank of
New England should consult. their true
interests at the present time. Nothing
can be made palmer than what the true
policy of all depositors is in the present
financial crisis
I will state briefly the precise situation
of business affairs in this country and
you can then judge for yourselves as well
as I can, the leveI-headed" thing for
you to do.
The distinction between the prices and
values of American securities must be
clearly understood. Take for instance
all the railroads of this country, as proper
ties they are as valuable now as before
the panic. But the stocks whose owners
have the legal title to these roads have
been shriveled in the heat of panic. A
forced instantaneous sale of them by
auction in the stock exchange in New
York in momentary panic is no lndlca-
ton of the railroads of the country.
The same is true of all other securltles
which are for sale in the same manner.
If the title to your farms were represent
ed by stock, instead of good deeds, and
the stock were for sale by auction at the
present time, the sellers would get but
a small fraction of their real value, and
the purchasers who held on to their titles
long enough would enrich themselves by
the very great difference between the
panic price, and the value OF them under
ordinary circumstances
Unfortunately for the country there is
a stock gam bling den OF uncaged bulls
and bears, located in Wall street, New
York. It is the storm centre OF panic.
The first result of panic is precipltancy.
One class of holders of corporation
valuation in this country is more than
Sc, OOO, 900, 900, or more than three times
the amount of our national debt at the
close Of the war, make haste to sell
them for ready money. Then the struggle
commences. Some are interested to get
prices up, and some to get them down.
Both classes resort to all the expedients
known to the law or not known to the
law. If false report will affect the mar
ket it is made with alacrity The bulls
below and the bears growl. One disem-
bowels with his horns, the other with his
claws. Both are as brutal and conscience
less as the beasts whose names they. have
borrowed. Their business has nothing
legitimate in it, 1t is foreign to all
the methods which produce or distribute
through the channels of trade the fruits
of industry
The scene admits of easy and accurate
description, and is laid in New York
city, this portion of which is suburban
ward of the DEVILS favorite capital. The
lurid furnace is a large hall in Wall street
filled with splendidly dressed men, cour-
ageous and intellectual. The fight begins,
for it is a fight in which there is no
merit. If the disasters of it were con-
fined to the persons Immediately engaged
it might be viewed with some degree of
tranquility, if not Indifference But the
prices of securities which are the victims
of what takes place here are fixed, for the
time throughout the country, it not the
world!
Each is after the aharslet" of the
other. Neither party has an honest in
tention Both parties are on their
make" The game is one OF surprises
and strategems. In no. other way is a
point to be gained. The auction method
no opportunity to successfully contradict
lie, or promulgate truth.
There are many storm centres here, and
they all commence their dizzy whirl at
the same time. Around each RACES all
the'evil passions of the INSCRIPTIONS man,
avarice striving for riches without earn
ing them, anger seeking revenge for past
losses, fear which pales the cheek, pom
posity which struts, audacity which VEN
lures and recklessness which despairs.
There is neither candor, dignity, good
manners, nor any nameable virtue pos
sessed by the human race on exhibition
here.
These splendidly dressed, courageous
and intellectual men, who seem harmless
enough on the street and in their homes,
become transformed instantly the con-
fiict begins in the exchange, into one
brute or the other. They walk, they run,
they stamp, they gesticulate with one
hand and the other, and with both,
they boiler, they scream, they threaten,
they accuse, they antic like mad dogs
and hiss, and bristle like Infatuated
cats, and in number, variety and volume
of commingled and accumulated sounds,
the most noisy British parliament that
ever assailed the ears OF the moon was
Quaker silence and gospel peace compared
with this uproar In this description of
what actually occurs in the stock ex-
change on Wall street nothing exag-
gerate, nor set down aught in malice"
At the close of the session when the
bears are victors prices have gone down,
but values remain the same, and after
the panic is over, and the settlements
have been made, the securities have
merely changed hands, and the same val
liable properties go on earning aid paying
diyid ends as if nothing had happened.