The Portland daily press., 1895-03-16
BUSINESS PROPHECY.
How a Government Railway Director
FOresaW Hard Times.

E0reSaW Hard Times.
The Little Cloud in the Southern Horizon
What it Portended to Uncle Jesse
SpaIding of Chicago
The intuitive faculty is strongly devel-
oped in the mind Of the successful busi-
ness man. Perhaps il | put it in another
way, the force of this declaration, which
as the result of some careful observation,
will be more keenly ielt by the casual
reader. Let it be recorded, therefore,
that the business Elan who is not en-
dowed with the faculty of intuition is
rarely successful, and never except as
years ago was the travelling companion
of Jesse Spalding, writes a contri butor
to the Chicago Herald. He was then
one OF the government directors of the
Union Pacific Railway Company. We
had been carried over several thousands
one evening found ourselves at Portland,
Oregon. When we left Chicago two
weeks previously prosperity reigned in
every department of commerce, and the
outlook for it's indefinite sway was un-
usually bright. Chicago had triumphed
in it's fight for the Worlds Fair; the
spirits of Cnicagoans ran high; tremen-
dous pu bile and private enterprises were
pr ojected or under way; the markets
were calm and firm; an effort upon the
part of speculative real estate dealers TO
inaugurate boom had besn nipped in
parently contented; there were no strikes
nor signs of strikes anywhere, and no
indications that any would be provoked
by the cutting of wages; the merchants
were doing a splendid business and pre-
pairing for considerable expansion, and
l remember distinctly that as "Uncle
JESSE" man of great wealth and extern
| sive interests, settled himself down in
the private car which was to carry us
over 10000 miles of railway, as the train
pulled out of the Northwestern depot.
there appeared upon his honest features
|
the face of man who has cleared his
desk and left his house in good order.
BAD NEWS FROM ARGENTINE.
| At Omaha he handed me copy of a
newspaper which he had been reading.
and, pointing to a five line telegram from
London, remarked in a serious tone,
Read that; it looks bad" The telegram
contained Information from the Argen-
| tine Republic to the effect that the gov
erument would be unable to meet the in
terest upon its obligations, unless agents
who had been dispatched to England
succeeded in negotiating a new loan.
Although held no Argentine security
at that time l felt it TO te my duty to
look serious also, as an evidence of good
faith, but l wisely refrained from max
ing any comment. But from that mo-
ment I became interested in Argentine
news. j felt that the subject would come
up again, sooner or later, and / wanted
to be ready to touch upon it intelligent
| ly. AT Cheyenne one OF the papers an
nounced that things were looking black
| in Argentina. AT Salt Lake City read
that the news from Buenos Ayres was
disturbing the London aud continental
stock markets. At Spokane Falls tele-
gram was published, saying that there
were rumors afoat in London to the
effect that one of the o Id est financial in
stitutions in the city was in distress, but
| that the Bank of England was coming to
the rescue. Mr.. Spalding read tnat piece
of news and quietly remarked: "There
will be a panic in Wall street inside of
week. l noticed about this time that
"Uncle Jesse" was doing a good deal of
| telegraphing and receiving great many
messages. His expression of content had
| changed to one of anxiety. From this
point on the storm center seemed to
move from Ruenos Ayres to London, and
the Argentine Republic appeared to be
lost sight of in the dispatches. When
we reached Portland the house of Barring
Brothers had gone down and Wall street
was in an uproar. Securities of every
kind were suffering, but the principal
attack seemed to be made upon Union
| Pacific. Jay Gould and his brokers were
in the midst of the fray. Stock operators
were falling by the dozen. The scenes
of Black Friday were being repeated. For
two days it seemed as though the coun-
try were doomed to repetition of the
disaster of 1873 On the third day hostil-
ties were suspended. The dead were
| buried and the wounded cared for. The
control Of dozen great interests had
| been changed. The Union Pacific had
passed out of the hands of the Adams and
| into the hands of the Gould faction. The
government had extended it's aid and the
tension in the money market was re-
| lieved. The storm had passed. The
country recognized the fact that it had
had narrow escape. There was uni
| versal sigh of relief. Telegrams from
Chicago assured MIR. Spalding that be
could rest easy, as everything was in
order once more.
HARD TIMES PREDICTED.
remem hered the five line telegram
concerning the Argentine government