The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-05
Hooley's Expensive Directors.

Late London cable news has dealt
extensively with the doings, or rather
the undoings, of Mr.. Hooley, who has
been so prominent feature in English
promoting during the last half-dozen
years. Two years ago, or Whereabouts,
Mr.. Hooley was the biggest man,
financially, in England. Barney Bar
nato was his only rival, if operating on
different lines in Napoleonic fashion
can make men rivals. Mr.. Barnato
promoted gold mines; Mr.. Hooley pro-
NOTED manufacturing enterprises Bar
nato went overheard and drowned. MIR.
Hooley has also gone by the board into
bankruptcy. His present claim to no
tcriety is based on what he is telling
an inquisitive court relative to where
his great fortune went, and all Eng
lands aristocracy is either f1uttering
or profoundly shocked. He tells the
court that the Earl of Albemarle was
paid by him $4,000 for the permission
to use his name as a director in one of
the companies whose stock he was
floating. Lord de Ia Ware asked and
got several thousand pounds for merely
introducing him to other lords, and
then tried to bride him to keep still.
And so he goes on to account for the
disappearance among titled gentry of
thousands Of pounds of his money
spent to get their names into the ,direc-
torates Of his companies.
Mr.. Hooley made use Of two condi-
lions, one peculiar to English life. He
knew that IAN Englishman dearly loves
a lord" and he knew that England was
suffering from plethora of money
So he invested his capital in earls and
lords and dukes for dummy directors
for his companies, knowing that the
loyal purseholders would esteem it a
valued privilege to hold stock in con-
Germs thus nobly differed. And he
reckoned Alright. Our boom days never
witnessed such f1otation of schemes,
such a rush to invest, as England saw
under Hooleys financiering. Barnato's
kafhr craze was one phase Of it. Sow
ere1gnS by the million went into Hoo
ley's enterprises, the principle of whose
formation was that Hooley, as promo
ter, bought properties and let his COM
panies have them at an advance of 100
per cent. But his bait proved too cost
ly. Nobility stock rapidly rose on his
market. Then sundry newspaper
sharks got after him, seeming blood
We regret to see that our one-time fell
low countryman William Waldorf AS
tors journal figures in Hooleys list.
although Mr.. Astor denies completely.
and it appears that it was his finan-
cial editor that did the striking. Other
papers making finance their specialty
are said by Mr.. Hooley to have de-
manded and got large sums either as
the price of advocacy of his schemes or
as the price of silence. For the sake
of the good name Of all papers we hope
Mr.. Hooley will be as explicit in re-
veallng the names of those who
"wolfed" him as he is of the nobility.
The success of these 'Napoleons of
Finance" in England is due, almost
wholly, to the Intense hunger for profit
able investments for the immense &C
cumulations Of money that EngIand's
trade policy has gathered there from all
quarters Of the globe. Solvent securi
ties have steadily advanced in price
and diminished in profftableness for
years Landlords have seen their rent
rolls shrink; consols have fallen in rate
and families with fixed incomes from
rent rolls and bonds have found their
Income seriously decreased. This has
caused q sharp appetite for investments
promising large returns in the way of
dividends or interest. When the rate
for permanent securities was only 2 Ger
cent the temptation to change into in
vestmerts promising from to 10 was
Irresistible to thousands. This is the
impulse of our common humanity. We
nave seen men leaving good positions
to go to the Klondike on the chance of
getting fortune there. In boom days
we have seen men disposing of solvent
securities to invest the proceeds in dirt
that promised greater returns Such
conditions are those in which the Hoo
leys and Barnatos Of both continents
thrive.