The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-08-21

basket, however attractive the basket
may seem. The wise investor distri-
butes his money among several prop
critics, so that if one proves unfortun-
ate the other will still yield him an in
come.
This may seem so elementary as to
go without saying, and yet two of the
largest recent failures were the result
of prominent Wall street firms putting
all their eggs into one basket. They
watched the basket faithfully enough.
but it was not sufficiently strong to
| carry the eggs through the recent
storm. The failures illustrate again
the unwisdom of banking houses put
ting practically their entire resources
into one enterprise.
| But there is another lesson of the
recent liquidation 1t Is this: It has
| disclosed the fact that many investors,
while careful to put their eggs into sew
eral baskets, went off and forgot to
watch the baskets. Some of these men
have been hurrying back to Wall
street this week from their favorita
| rtcreatiOns, to find out what it all
means, this commotion in the securi-
ties market. They have found not only
that their fortunes measured by the
| tape have greatly deprecated, but that
their incomes are strengthened by the
losses in such Of their properties in
which they were interested. In other
words, one or two Of their baskets
nave been upset and the eggs broken
This is not the worst of it, for in some
cases the eggs in the other baskets
have had to be sold in order to make
good the other losses.
Now there are two great rules in in
| yestment, and in the word 'invest-
| ment" we would include conservative
speculation, and they are: l-wise
choice; 2-close watching. To watch
is as important as it is to invest. He
who goes off and leaves his baskets of
eggs to look after themselves will be
apt to suffer severe losses as more
than one man of large wealth and ele.
CANT leisure has recently discovered to
his sorrow The general public would
be surprised if names could be men
toned
Never was more impressive sermon
than that taught by the recent liquida-
ton in the stock market. 1t is not
merely the lesson Of the evils of over
promotion and over speculation. 1t is
the lesson of the danger of not watch
ing ones investemnts. 1t is a law as
true if not as old as that which de-
clared that by the sweat of his brow
should man labor, that to be secure the
Investor must keep close watch on his
properties. Eternal vigilance is the
price of safety in business as much as
it is the price of liberty. And per.
haps it is a wise ordering of human
| life that makes this so. Few men are
Justified in entirely separating them.
selves from business. To labor is The
primal law of mankind, and every mar
who devotes himself entirely to pleas
ure is violating that law.
Investments must be watched he
cause they will not watch themselves
A noted author, who is so rich that h,
can afford the leisurely pursuit of tn,
delights of literature, recently hastenet
from his country place to town becaus,
as he said, he must watch his invest
ments; he could not altogether trus
others to do that for him. He dis
played more wisdom than some VIII,
have had more experience in bushes
than he.
More vigilance on the part of inves
tors will produce stronger baskets an,
better egss. Let the investors kee]
watch, and there will be fewer depart
ures from sound principle in the con
duct of companies; there will be fewe
dividends declared that are not JUST
fled by surplus earnings. there will b.
fewer mutations of capitalization, ant
there will be less manipulation of cor
porate management for speculativ,
purposes.-Wall Street Journal.