The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-12
SOME PITi.1An1.E REsuLTs.

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not give themselves ever much concern
as to what occurs in Wall street. Those
who do not go down to the stock ex-
change to speculate are prepared to hear
anything whatever from that region; and
when such scenes as those of the past
week are enacted popular interest is
aroused only to the extent of wonder
ment as to the lengths to which the pre-
vailing frenzy may carry those engaged.
Especially is this the case when the
understanding prevails, as it does today,
that the result of a given outbreak Is
not likely to affect seriously the cur
rent of business Even in Wall street
those who follow the stock business take
with comparative quiet the worst de-
velopments which may ensue. The phiIo-
sophie spirit which followed the cessa-
ton of the wild scenes of Tuesday, We'd
nesday and Thursday, show how COM
pletely Injured to such possibilities and
the consequences they entail is the or
binary Wall street operator. In twenty
years we may be said to have a score
of such happenings. few, if any of them,
however, to be ltkcned to those which
have just taken place.
1t IS when one considers the effects
on those in other countries whose prom
erty interests may be involved, that the
enormous wrong done is brought home
clearly n
scenes which the cable dispatches de-
scribe as having taken place in London at
the close Of the New York Stock Exchange
on Thursday one hour after the close Of
change in the British metropolis are
simply pitiable. Those who will neel-
lessly or wantonly bring to their fellow
creatures so much of suffering as those
cable dispatches set forth commit a
crime as grave as if they had deliberately
engaged in the robbery and despoilment
of their Victims.
Yet We here in the United States regard
such events with comparative compla-
cency, and reputable newspapers whose
proprietorshlp regard themselves as
identified in interest or prejudice with
y those who bring about such results NAV
be observed straining all their resources
to mislead the public alike as to the cause
and the effect of such proceedings.
- Cam anything be more touching than
the scenes depicted in the following ex-
tracts taken from the London cables as
the result of the desperate gamble which
the manipulators of Northern Pacific
common precipltated on the country:
In a ,drenching rain, up to the ankles
IN mud, ana menaced by passing carts
and stared at by unsympathetic police
men, was a dense crowd of haggard
frightened men - spectators, brokers'
dealers, clerks, clients-an huddled to-
gether in almost Voiceless alarm Now
and again hatless, pale-faced men would
rush frantically from adjacent courts
only to find the price in something which
mad broken gone to pieces Dealers were
AFRAID to deal, and brokers did not know
whom to trust.
In the frenzied crowd which, after the
'change mad closed, met on the curb and
received the New York cables telling of
disaster, We're many men who, as they
saw their all swept away, looked and
acted as If their reason would go to
smash as their wealth had gone
one particularly young dealer who
bears name long honored in the Lon
don stock. exchange. completely lost his
reason. He offered to sell stocks at
prices many dollars below the worst
quotations current His broken-yoiced
cries were made more distressing by the
TACT that no other sound for a time
broke the stiffness. However. even at
such time Of general despair. nobody
tried to profit by his temporary mad
ness.
There is probably no law designed to
take account of the crimes of those who
produce such results But there should
be. The men who are responsible ought.
in the name of American business society.
to be brought before the bar of justice
and made to take tine legal penalties of
their crime against society. Until such
transactions are made clearly punisha-
bic, and the law is made able to reach
those who bring them about, no reason
able fault can be found If foreign in
vestors continue to look on American
securities as form of investment which
should be left severely alone.