The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-28

CHAPTER xxxIv.

!
CHAPTER xxxIv.
How the Chinook Came to Wall Street.
The loss of much money is commonly
q subject to be managed with brevity and
aversion by one who sits down with the
right reverence for sheets Of clean paper.
To .bewaH is painful. To affect lightness
on the other hand would, in this age,
SAVIOR Of insincerity, If not OF downright
blasphemy. More than a bare recital OF
the wretched facts. therefore, is not
seemly.
The Bines fortune disappeared much
as a heavy fall OF snow melts under the
Chinook wind.
That phenomenon is not uninteresting.
We may picture a far-reaching waste Of
snow, wind-furrowed until 1t resembles
bfllowy white sea frozen motionless. The
wind blows half a gale and the air is full
Of fine e-crystals that sting the face
viciously. The sun, lying low on the
southern horizon, seems mere frozen
globe, with lustrous pink crescents en-
circling it.
One day the wind backs and shifts. A
change portends. Even the herds OF half
frozen range cattle sense it by some sub
tie beast-knoWledge. They are no longer
afraid to lie down as they may have been
for a week. The danger of freezing has
passed. The temperature has been at 30
degrees below zero. Now, suddenly it be-
gins to rise. The air is scarcely in mo-
ton, but occasionally it descends as out
| OF blast furnace from overhead. To the
/ southeast is mass Of dull black clouds.
Their face is unbroken. But the upper
edges are ragged, torn by a wind not yet
felt below. Two hours later It's warmth
| comes. In ten minutes the mercury goes
I up thirty FIVE degrees. The wind comes
at a thirty-rn,le velocity. It increases in
strength and warmth, blowing with. a
mighty roar.
Twelve hours afterward the snow, three
feet deep on a level, has melted. There
Iare bald, brown hills everywhere to the
horizon, and the plains are flooded with
water. The chinook has come and gone.
In this manner suddenly went the Bines
| fortune.
April 80, Consolidated Copper closed at
81. Two days later, May 2, the same i'll
fated stock closed at 51-a drop OF forty
points Roughly the decline meant the
loss of 500, 100000 to the $4,000 sharehold-
ers. From every city Of Importance in
1 the country came tales more or less tragic
! Of holdings wiped out, of ruined families,
| Of defalcations and suicides The losses
lin New York city alone were said to be
4 $50, 600, 00O A few large holders, reputed
4 to enjoy inside information, were said to
! have put their stock aside and sold short
in the knowledge of what was coming.
4 Such tales are always popular in the
street. @
4 Others not less popular had to do with
4 the reasons for the slump. Many were
1 plausible. A deal with the Rothschilds
for control of the Spanish mines had fallen
thru. Or, again, the slaughter was due to
the Shepler group of Federal Oil operators
lwho were bent OF forcing some one to UNI
lload great quantity Of the stock so thai
2 they might absorb 1t. The immediate
causes were less reconcile. The Consoli-
dated company SO far from controlling the
output, was suddenly shown to contro
actually less than so per cent of it. g. It's
efforts to amend or repeal the marcy ole
law of supply and demand had simply me-
with the Indifferent success that has
marked all such efforts since the first at
tempted corner in stone hatchets, or mas
todon tusks or whatever it may have
been. In the language of one of the news
paper critics, the trust had been found
s ed on misconception and prompted alont
lines Of self destruction It's fundamental
principles We're the restriction OF product
the increase of price, and the throttling o
:, competition, a trinity that would wreck
any combination, business, political OF SO
cial.''
!, with this generalization we have no con
Germ. AS to the copper situation, tn,
comment was pat. It had been suddenl!
, disclosed not only that no combination
could be made to include the European
mines but that the Consolidated compan!
had an unsold surplus of 150, 600, 900 pound
t of copper; that It was producing 20,OO0,OO
3 pounds month more tnan coulo De 500
{ Ii and that it had made large secret sale
, abroad at from 2 to cents below thu
market price.
AS II fearing that these adverse condi
lions did not sufficiently insure the stock
downfall, the Shepler group OF Fedora
Oil operators beat 1t down further will
what was vertically a golden slelge. Tha
Is they exported gold at a loss. At
time when obligations could have beer
met more cheaply with bought bills the!
sent out many golden cacgoes at an aetna
& loss Of three hundred dollars on the hal
million. AS money was already dear, ant
thus became dearer, the temptation am
1.-The means to hold copper stock, in spit
Of all discouragements, were removed
from the paths of hundreds of the har
ried holders.
incidentally, Western Trolley had gon
into the hands of a .-eca.vcr, a failure in
volving another hundred million 6nliars
and Union Cordage had fallen thirty tiv
points thru sensational disclosures as i
it's overcapitalization.
Into this maelstrom of a panic marke
the Bfnes fortune had been sucked with
swiftness so terrible that the family,
: chief advising member was left daze
O and incredulous.
For two days he olung to the ticker tar
as to life line. re had committed tn
= millions of the family as lightly as eve
n he had staked a hundred dollars en- til
= turn Of card or left ten on the change
y tray for his waiter.
Then he had seen his cunningly bui
l. foundations, rested upon with hopes $
l. high for three months, melt away lik
ID snow when the blistering Chinook come.
it 1t has been thought wise to adopt tW
If somewhat differing SMILES IN the forege
of ing, in order that the diraness of III
IS tragedy may be sufficiently unprecedented
81 The morning of the first Of the two las
,a awful DAYS. he WAS called to the Office I