The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1904-02-03
AsrORIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY.
WALL STREET PoPULISM.

SA%AA@NsA'
A humorist in congress recently referred to 18th
populsts of Wall street" in one of his speeches. bu
the joke was so subtitle that it failed to get the ap
plause it deserves. But it doesn't require diagram
to explain it. and it viii be better appreciated befor
next October ends says the New York Commercial
The populist in the good old days when he ''kep
in the middle of the road and let the wind blow
through his ample beard, contended that everybody
would be roch and happy if the governemnt would
only issue an unlimited number of slips of paper
stamped simply ''this is ST. "this is $40, "this
is $50, or ''this is 100000, These slips were
to be given value simply by the fiat" declaration
of the government that they were so. Whoever had
anything of value whether in property or labor was
to be compelled to part with it for as many of these
slips as somebody else would offer Happily the
people were never forced to make this experiment
or given the opportunity to discover how much Of
this fiat paper it would take to buy breakfast.
The populists of Wall street, dealing largely as
they do in paper of their own making, began few
years ago to apply the fiat idea in the making of it
in most liberal way. They organized on greatly
enlarged scale, and issued so-caed securities" on
truly magnificent plan. These securities were usu
ally of three kinds: bonds secured by mortgage on
the property in which there no fat; preferred
stock which was mostly fiat and common, which was
all fat The bonds were for those who were sharp
enough to take nothing else for their property, or
money; the preferred stock for the promoters and
their ntmates the common for such lambs as could
be induced to buy it.
The Wall street scheme has not worked out much
better than the Kansas scheme. The fiat securities
have met much the same fate that the government s
fiat bills would have met had they ever been issued
albeit they had something more to recommend them
The public, that part of it that had money to in
vest received them with little favor at first buying
them at large discount but this discount has grown
steadily greater until real value has been pretty near
y reached In some cases it has been fully reached
for the combinations have wholly faied,a and their
pretended securities are as worthless as any other
fiat paper in no have the advantages expected
on one side, and feared on the other, been wholly
realized Competition has been in some degree re-
strained, but not wholly prevented It has not been
possible to advance prices to the consumer as hoped
Where an unreasonable advance has been made. for
time, it has been found that consumption was SO
far restrained as to make it less profitable to main
tam 1t, at the cost of a reduced output than to en-
courage activity by fair prices It has been. or at
least is being demonstrated that the laws of nature
which are the laws Of trade, can not be more sue
cessfuly set at defiance by the populiss who do busi
ness In New Jersey, and shave their boards than by
those who live west of the Missouri river and do not
"The criminal trusts, " soeaed for the purpose of +
making campaign ISSUE are less dangerous, and in
different way, than those who talk most about them
would have us suppose Like the oldfashoned blum.
derbus they are more dangerous to those behind than
to those in front Of them Their greatest '.crimes'
are practiced upon those who permit them selves to
be induced to invest in their securities, and against
hose they so alarm that they are afraid to invest in
my securities. AS Judge Grosscup has SO clearly
pointed out they need regulating so far as to permit
heir repeoplezing and this can be done by crushing
he fat out of them and not by crushing them out Of
Existence. a