The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-31
STOCK GAMBLING.

The community seems TO be rapidly
becoming one of StOck-gamDlers. I'd
lection will be made to the use OF the
term stock gambler. This objection Is
made everywhere in any stock market
OF the world by those who take the
widest risks in dealing in stocks. The
term is properly applied 10 those
among others who will be crippled
financially if their ventures IN stocks
do not turn out favorably. The diVld-
ing line between investment and gam
bling is a shadoWy one, and II Is not
easy to accurately define it. 1t is re-
norted on all sides that business men,
capitalists, professional men, men l1v-
ing on fixed incomes and salaries,
clerks in stores, workingmen in large
numbers are dealing in sugar stocks.
The retail merchants generally COM
plain OF the difficulty in making coll
lections OF small accounts because
their customers are holding stocks.
This condition of things is a natural
outcome of the growth of the sugar
industry. 1t was predicted, because
throughout the commercial and finan-
cial world, similar conditions produce
similar results
Indeed, there is much similarity be-
tween the speculative movements of
the sugar properties here, and the
speculative ventures in petroleum oil,
forty years ago, at the time of its dis
covery at Oil City, in the State of
Pennsylvania. Large fortunes were
quickly made. Small fortunes were
beneath notice" There were risks
in finding OIL. in securing large sup
ply, and in the permanence OF the
yield, When conservative men said to
the confident investors in oil proper
ties throughout the country, what as
surance have you that the oil will con-
finue to fiow?' the reply made by
scientists and practical oil men was,
"what assurance cam you give us that
the oil will stop fiOwing?" No answer
could be made to this query, because
no one knew. But the public as usual,
always a bull and optimistic, be
lieved in perpetual flow. And so
did many capitalists. After few
years, a balancing of accOunts-by esti-
mate Only-was made, and it showed
that the multitude was ignorant, and
enormous sums were lost in this gam
bling. The contingencies of the bust
ness were entirely ignored.
The backbone of the present upward
movement in sugar stocks Is the
amount of present dividends. While
the sugar producing industry is great
ly depressed in nearly all of the sugar
producing countries, it f1ourishes here,
and on the Mainland by reason of the
protection given by the American
tariff. Whether the policy of eXpan-
sion will neutraliZe that protection in
the end, by admitting colonial sugars
free: whether the hostility of the AM
erican people to the immigration OF
contract labor will cause rise in
wages, are questions which no one can
answer with much confidence.
There are good reasons for believing
that our sugar properties will continue
TO be valuable But the gambling ele-
'SSNh 1880
now valuable they are and will be-
The factors in determining the future
values are not understood.
In any event is the community bene-
fitted by a condition of things in which
one gets something for nothing?
When a man by giving simple order
to buy stocks, and subsequently gives
an order to sell them, and makes a
considerable profit out of this simple
act, he naturally asks himself: why
should / work from morning until
might in order to earn a few dollars,
when simple turn in stocks, made
without any labor, will give me a
years living?" He usually answers
the question by making a speculative
purchase. The men who make sue
cesses in stock operations, and at the
same time can keep on an even keel
are rare.
No preaching will change these I'M
desirable conditions. So long as wealth
is practically the generally accepted
measure of mans standing, the youns
and the old will reach for it, and gam
BILE for it.
1t must be said, however, that the
sugar investments on these Islands
have less of risk in them than the
railway investments of the United
States, during the last twenty-five
years. The losses TO conservative in
vestors of New England in the secur-
tiles alone of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa F'e railway, are larger than
the entire capital of all of the plan
tations on the Islands.