Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-02-25
FRIEND OF THE BROKER.
A Business Man of Prominence
Warns up On the Topic of
Brokers' Offices.

with n member of one of the most pro-
minent Of down town business houses,
was passing a local brokers' office, a
Young man, who was "a warm mutual
friend OF both of as emerged from the
brokers' and hurried away in the direc-
ton OF his office. 1t was at the noon
hour and he had doubtless been spend.
ing the hour nobnobbing with the fig
ares on the blackboard.
.,Somehow | don't like to see Harry
hanging around that brokers' Office, |
remarked.
$50 YOU belong 10 the class OF people
who think the brokers' office is a
dangerous place eh:' rctorted my com-
panion irritably. well, now, in the
first place | want TO 80 OH record as say
ing that | believe in the brokers office.
1t is the distributing point for the
market reports, without which we
would be a century behind the times we
now live in. The market reports which
you get in that brokers' Office back there
tell the banker exactly what his securi-
ties are worth; the merchant can deter
mine pretty closely from them what
the financial condition is and what it is
going TO be and can adjust his buying
ON that basis; the shipper of grain and
live stock wouldn't dare TO operate as
he does without th~em-couldn't do it,
in fact; the farmer would be at the
mercy of every little jim crow grain
buyer in the land without this infor-
NATION which the brokers' Office brings
so quickly and easily within his reach,
Why, down in the country it's getting
so that nearly every farmer has Il phone
in his house and when he has grain TO
sell he knows to a cent what he ought
to get for it and he gets it, too"
But while these brokers' offices do
all this they also furnish the news. /
have Il great many friends who drop
into the brokers office to see how the
war goes in the pit out of mere curl
osity to see the fun, and they know that
if there is any important bit of general
news from any part of the country to be
had they will get it there quicker than
almost anywhere else. Frequently the
habitudes of the brokers offices in neigh
boring cities know of a great disaster
such as the Iroquois theatre fire here
before anyone else. Very often sport
ing events are given III detail"
1T is astonishing how many of our
young men are forming the habit of
visiting brokers' offices. And it is no
less astonishing to know how we'll
posted these young fellows are in regard
to movements in the world Of commerce
and finance. ] dare say that many of
them could tell us older fellows who
pride ourselves on keeping close tab on
c~hange-conld tell us n lot of things.
They learn to study and observe every
movement closely and that means that
they are keeping in close touch with the
most vital of the country's business
interests. l will tell you it is most
valuable business training and disci-
pline."
Zone constantly meets at these offices
his business friends and altogether [
regard the brokers' office a pleasant and
instructive place to visit. There are Il
great many men OF my acquaintance
who frequent brokers' offices for this
recreation and useful information gwen
gratis and who never have sp~eculated
a dollars worth in IL of the commodi-
ties dealt in by the board of trade.
The brokers' office represents, in my
opinion, a perfectly legitimate-yes, as
matters now stand, an indispensable
function i'll modern commercial life. /
cannot see any reasonable reason why
so many people should get out their
little hammers and begin TO knock
when they see a friend coming out of a
brokers'. 1t makes me weary"
Just then u ways parted and since
thinking over what he said, I'm of the
opinion that my friend Is about right
and that ] had jumped at IL conclusion
without giving the subject the consider
alton it deserved. Chicago Inter Ocean
Feb. 2, 1904.