The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-05-24
A Gambling He'll.

den shock they encountered from wealth
to poverty. Women thronged broker
offices weeping for the losses they had
suffered. The head gamblers made mil
lions at the expense of the innocents who
were seeking to get something for
nothing
This gambling hell of Wall street ex-
tends its baneful influence far and wide
over the country. Clerks rob their EN-
ployers, bank officers rob their depositors,
women are tempted to risk their small
incomes in the hands of brokers, trusting
to the latter's judgment to place their
money on margins. And farmers, we are
informed, bitten by the gambling mania
mortgage their farms to risk their all on
cast of the die OH Wall street stocks.
Wall street has long been the worst
gambling hell in this country and recent
ly has risen to the greatest i'll the world.
The gambling in the stock exchange
differs, it is true. in manner and form
from the old and vulgar methods of cards,
dice, wheels of fortune, etc, but is not
one whit better i'll its demoralizing, i'm
moral and destructive results to character
and fortune.
And against this widely extended moral
and economic evil there is nothing greater
than mild protest on the part of the
public. The press rather encourages and
defends it, the State licenses and protects
it, and the pulpit is virtually dumb. 1t
hourishes under the auspices of the re-
publican party, and the democratic party
offers no specific remedy for it.
What are the main sources of this
demoralizing and destructive evil? 1t is
the watered stocks of corporations; at the
head of which stands the railroad and the
telegraph monopoly, through which is
operated the Associated Press censorship
of the daily press. These monopolies,
buttressed by the money power or bank
ing trust, are the propagating nursery of
the great Wall street gambling moral
pestilence.
What is the remedy for this commercial
plague? The humiliation of its breeding
ground. No one ever heard of postal
stock, although the postoffice business is
the greatest singly managed business in
this country. If the postoffice were in
private hands, as the railroads and other
great corporations are, there would be
millions of its stock put on the market of
a half dozen or more different brands.
Transfer the railroads from private owner
ship, and twelve billions of watered stock
will disappear from Wall street. Place
the telegraph under government, as part
of the postofice machinery. the censor
ship of the press will cease and the truth
will be published by the daily press
instead of the tissue of falsehoods, per-
versions and concealnents now imposed
on the public.
Money is created by government for
the use of the people, and in every sense
is public function. Take its control from
private corporations and place it under
government guardianship, TO be managed
for the public and in the interest of the
public welfare, and great syndicates for
financing exploiting schemes for fleeing
the people will be numbered among the
old frauds of the past. Let these funda-
mental principles of popular government
be established and Wall street, now the
roaring lion of the gambling fraternity
in the language of "the street," known
as "speculators"-will roar as gently
as sucking doves.
There never was such an opportunity
as now for popular party to seize this
strategic position and rally the mass of
the people to its standard. The repub
lican party is hopelessly entangled in the
network of the monoplies it has lent its
power to create and strengthen in the last
thirty years. For the money they have
advancedfor election purposes it has given
them everything they asked for. The
republican party is hopelessly, irretriev-
ably lost as popular party. lift attempts
to cut loose from the monopolies which
feed and sustain it, it cannot survive.
The democratic party might occupy
this commanding, strategic ground, but
will it? We fear not. 1t is welded to
old traditions. Like Ephraim, it seems
Joined to its idols, a large element of it
with face turned to the past, clarifying
its achievements of a hundred years ago
and invoking the spirit of its mighty dead
to come forth, as Saul invoked the spirit
of Samuel. And if they did come forth
their message would, it is likely, be not
unlike that of Samuel to Saul.
The two elements of the Democratic
party are as antagonistic as the parties of
Saul and David. If Saul ever had pro
totype the gold democrats represent it.
But why does Bryan stand idle and
content himself exposing to we'll merited
scorn the heresy of this aristocratic ele-
ment, which is endeavoting to establish
their rightful heirship to the democratic
party? Why does he not, in conjunction
with his scathing exposures, fearlessly
point out the ground the party must oc-
cupy or give place to a better organiza-
ton? Government ownership of natural
monopolies is the only tenable position
from which the republican party's pluto
cratic policy can be successfully assailed,
and it is none too soon for those who
propose to take that stand to be up and
doing.