The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-08
THE R0AsrER ON WALL STREET


The Rhamkatte Rooster is quoted all
over North Carolina and in Rhamkatte
precinct it is regarded as the modern
oracle. And no wonder, for it deals with
all topics with home barn-yard philosophy,
and applies horse sense to all pending
problems. IF it is somewhat provincial,
it must be said that its provincialism Is
all in line with the old-fashioned virtues.
But the Rooster is no longer looked up
to merely by the denizens of Rhamkatte
and quoted with approval by the people
of North Carolina. 1t is needed and
respected within the very precincts of
Wall street as the following leading edi-
torial from the New York Commercial
shows:
SOME TAR-HEEL OBSERVATIONS.
A bit of advice that is trite and plati-
jected anew in strikingly original way
by the editor of the "Rhamkatte Roast
err and, taken as a text by the Raleigh
News and Observer it is further ex-
plotted with much timeliness and force.
Buy bull yearlings," says the Roast
err land swing onto their tails. Any
other stock is liable to get away or to
depreciate. Bull yearlings will continue
to appreciate in value and Morgan and
Rockefeller cannot hammer them down. F"
AS. obligingly interpreted by our Tar
Heel contemporary, this means that, in
stead of gambling in stocks and bonds of
which the Spectator knows little, man
will be wise to put his money in property
near at hand, about which he knows most
and in which good judgment and bust
ness sense wfl bring a return in dollars.
And the Observer then proceeds to do
a little figuring" on the subject. "If,
it says, "all the money lost in futures
and in stock gambling in the city of
nVeste6 in cotton factories, this city
would have enough mills to spin all the
cotton grown in the Fourth Congression-
al district; if it had been invested in bull
yearlings, there would be enough cattle
to give a scare to the beef trust; if in
improving the land, the Wake farms
would look like gardens
That may be true-and on the other
hand good many Raleigh spectators
may have made money instead of losing it.
It must be borne in mind, too, that some
body profits by every loss in these trans
ACTIONS, and the profits may have been
put somewhere in the world to quite as
good a use as building cotton mills in
North Carolina or buying bull yearlngs"
there. Nobody can tell exactly about all
these things but the tremendous indus
trial and commercial growth of the coun-
try since Lees surrender" through the
wise investment of fortunes won in one
way or another, is pretty good proof that
all 'stock gambling" so called, is not a
loss or waste of money.
Is there were no cotton exchanges where
trading in futures" may be carried on,
or no stock exchanges in which the daily
values of railroad, industrial and other
stocks are pretty accurately recorded, the
cotton planters would have a sorry time
of it disposing of their crops practically
in the dark, and investors would be all at
sea as to what to do with their money.
Yet, if the Observers advice were to be
followed strictly-that is. everybody to
quit speculating-there would speedily be
no Exchanges. and business generally
would gradually lapse backward into the
primitive methods of our forbears of a
century ago. We are not advising any
body, anywhere, young or old, to specu-
late-but we submit that the exchanges
of today represent the highest form of
-busissss. Development, and that to depre-
cate trading in futures and in stocks SIM
ply because lot of people 'go broke
in it is almost as absurd as it would be to
abolish by law the running OF railway
trains because they kill so many persons
during the course of year. Businessdom
is ilserasls,~ spotted with men who Ego
broke ON iron or eggs or neckties OF
whatnot every week. Look at the re