The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1901-12-18

cliques of skillful but doubtful persons
started to do that which is known as
milking the market" These clioues
played battledoor and shuttlecock with
electric shares till the public began TO
get nervous.
SedulousSy and skillfully these cIioues
would spread reports to suit their
ends. They would promulgate pessi-
mistic rumors to send shares down and
jump in and buy on the strength of the
depression caused by the needless fears
of the oversensitive market. Then lust
as cleverly they would rig the market
up again on the strength of optimistic
rumors just as untrue us the previous
pessimistic ones.
Everybody was In it. Leading banks
opened special electricity department.
In the case of one particular bank the
electrical department occupied the fin
est part Of the building. Electric shares
were taken in largely, even by the best
banks, as collateral, as security for
loans and as a cover for investments.
The banks were full of electricity
shares thus taken. Nobody doubted
the value of such shares, and the banks
took them willingly.
What is more. they were bound to do
so or remain without business, for it
was the one particular kind Of security
which every one held. 1t was the pop
ular paper of the moment and, held as
it was in such powerful hands, seemed
certainly gilt edged security.
Electrical companies sprang up on
all sides. Capital asked for flowed in.
9eughly speaking. the value Of cleo
NcaA shares at one moment was, be-
marks ($166,O0O,00N
While the electrical "boom" was on
all other important trades Doomed"
with it. Everywhere electrical COM
panies' works were being built. They
wed with one another as to which
would be ready first and which should
eclipse the other in points of perfec-
ton. Machinery was ordered in large
quantities and double prices paid fol
quick delivery. Money was nothing,
No machinery was apparently beyond
! the price the electricity company di.
rectors were willing to pay. Orders
extended to the United States, whence
| full working plants were ordered, the
one condition being quick delivery.
Naturally, the price of iron and coal
! promptly rose. Ironmasters and coal
mine owners made money hand over
fist So also rose the prices of steel OF
all descriptions-rails, sleepers, fish
| plates, Orders, rivets, wire and other
such things appertaining to machinery.
Up went copper, lead, crude gum. cot.
ton, all things necessary In fixtures Of
electricity.
Wages, especially for skilled labor,
rose Immediately, and the electrical
companies were called upon to face a
budget very seriously larger than any
thing which their original calculations
were based upon.
Thus when the electrical enterprises
came to a standstill all other branches
| Of trade connected with them likewise
suffered. There was no more call for
machinery and the like. From all over
the country came reports Of large in
dustrial concerns, each alike telling
the same tale of bad trade and dimtn-
ished receipts.
The piteous lament Of women and of
the workman's family today rises
from one end of the manufacturing
portion of the country to the other.
| Thirty-five thousand workingmen are
idle in Berlin alone.
All over the country is the same cry.
What is more, sad though 1t be, that
lament is likely to be heard still loud
err for every day masters are reducing
the number of their hands because
there is not work for the hands to do.
| And with this the poor people nave
winter upon them.
| q Fulton q