Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-30
A STARTLING CHARGE.
Prominent Politicians of Gold Standard Stripe Said to Have Been Concerned in That
 Wall Street Furry.

aNew York Herald. 1r l''''tr T There was furry of excited gossip in political and financial circles yesterday, and 1t was caused by a sensational lead ing article in the conservative Journal of Commerce att
 : The article charges that the recent lsemi-panic in Wall street was due to a deliberately planned conspiracy by group of men prominent in national poh- tics leagued with professional operators in stocks. No names are given, but nu-
 merous indications are supplied as to the quarter in which these alleged WreckerS
 might be identified.
 While admitting that the general de-
 cline In securities was largely due to the
 rapid fall In the treasury reserve, the ru-
 mored spread of the silver craze and the
 other disquieting incidents, the Journal
 of Commerce asserts that the importance
 of these facts bore no proportion to the
 disturbing effects which have been
 evoked from them.
 '"The facts" it says, "has been foreseen
 and their effects are amply discounted
 by bear operators, and in the free sell
 ing of stocks, and this once thrashed
 straw was, for a second time. made a
 pretence for creating financial demorali-
 zation." ett s 4 e* <-st
 The article continues:
 "The professional bears may be ex-
 CiHPtCu liOii pidluC lLio dltcAiPL lO
 precipitate disaster. For this attack
 men of other caliber were needed, who
 did not need to borrow stock to make
 their deliveries, but held 1t by the mill
 lion and could sell it without stint with
 no fear of being cornered. The chief
 operators were men who, under the late
 dubious outlook, had sold freely of their
 large holdings and wished to recover
 their stock at the lowest possible prices.
 They were speculative millionaires, their
 coadjutors and friends stock dealers of
 the highest grade of potency and expert
 manipulators of the market Men con-
 trolling large corporations and with in- huential bank connections were in the
 forefront of the assault. Their united
 wealth and control of capital amounted
 to hundreds of millions. To those con-
 verSant with Wall street affairs it is
 only needful to note last Mondays trans
 actions in the leading speculative stocks
 in order to ascertain the personnel of the
 operators. The attack appears to have
 been virtual conspiracy. The plan of operations bore evidence of joint under standing and common purpose" What set the politicians round town buzzing was the statement, contained in
 the same article, that among the assail- ants were citizens accustomed to blend politics with large speculative opera tions," and the following startling insin- uations:
 Men who stand high in party councils, who distinguished themselves at the late national conventions, and who have fig- ured conspicuously before the country as valiant opponents of the free coinage heresy, are credibly reputed to have been in the ranks of these millionaire raiders, both political parties having been equally represented. Herein lies one of the most interesting phases of this extraordinary feat of buccaneering speculation. The facts reveal a depth of financial venality |iwhich we had scarcely been prepared to expect even in the moral slums of Wall | street. We have heard of members of | congress and of high politicians speculat- Ling on the fate of sugar bills and on the mysteries of tariff legislation and on the secrets of administrative departments. \ bun it is at least something new that men |iwho are leaders in protecting our money system should employ themselves in bcreating panics and endangering the abil- | ity of the treasury to maintain gold pay ments"
 Referring to the action of the banks in | replenishing the gold reserve and the |>agreement among foreign banking houses to prevent a further outflow of gold, the article declares that these grave pre- cautionary measures, are due almost ex- | clusively to the attempt of this million | aire combination to supply themselves | with stocks at panic prices."
 Deploring the fact that there are men ready to turn great national danger into an occasion for increasing their pri- vate wealth." the article, asserts that the "scandalous operations" in Wall street at the beginning of last week were "a blow to public confidence as damaging as the conclusions of the Chicago convention" Music at East Lake fo,.