Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-11
NEWS AND GOSSIP
FROM WALL STREET
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BY W. g. NICHOLAS.
, Co-r..uondence at The Star,

Special Correspondence of The Star
NEW YORK, June 10. 1905.
Speculation in Wall street has gotten
Into a professional rut. which Is to say
that the croupiers are playing with each
other and prices are greatly In need OF
some definite impulse. Since the break
which began about the middle OF April
wipiBg out a mob of margined spectators,
the public has been sour on the market ana
will no; act apparently on any Inducements
there held forth The public is always
tickle ouantitv of the stock market. After
a speculative orgie 1t returns 10 us wv"
affairs and attends strictly to them until
its losses are forgotten or until some iu-
ture time it is seized with anothef IhinnN
for acquiring riches quickly. There Is nes.
er any telling at what point or uhoeI VIVA
conditions the public will return 10 the
market. Jay Gould once closed up a pea.
campaign at loss of several minlohs VI
dollars and went heavily long of the mar
ket merely because the public, winch hau
been absent for number OF years, was
suddenly and unaccountably taken Win :.
desire TO buy stocks. and from the poiie
mt which he reversed his position on tHe
market there was a rise in values ldslihs
several years. This applies particularly 10 me
speculative public which is only occasional
~ powerful factor in the market. factor
much more important from the point OIL
view of Wall street observers at the pres
emit time is that the investing public also is
support from the stock market. The rea-
sons for this are not remote
=
The Equitable scandal has made pro-
found impression upon the pubiics mlno'
and this impression is intensely hostile 10
the class of men who more or less COM
pletely dominate the affairs of Wall street
The most prominent men in high finance
OF this day are publicly arraigned for prac-
tees in their capacities as con.
SENATORS of great trust Wnich
are not to be squared by any subterfuges
of reason with the principles OF honesty
and fair dealing. The average man uH
skilled in the devious ways or finance Is
likely to ask this question: III we cannon
find honesty in men who are already SO
rich that money should be no temptation
TO them where we to look for itE SeV,
craI very conservative operators in Wall
street. interested chiefly in the speculative
end of finance have recently abandoned the,
bull side of the market because OF the
adverse influence which they find the Equi-
table disclosures to be producing upon
popular opinion.
A similar influence has begun to make IT.
self felt abroad, and lately we have had TO
take back a good many of the stocks that
were distributed in foreign markets II
would be surprise to those who are out
side the atmosphere of the financial dls-
trict to learn that honest and right think
ing men whose interests are all bound up
in Wall street have strong feelings on the
Roosevelt calls common honesty and COM
mon deceney" IN certain quarters of high
finance. They do not hesitate to express
their feelings privately but would not. OF
course go on record as enterta tanning senu-
ments which would be revolutionary in the
financial community. The head of one OF
the Oldest and most conservative banking
houses in the street. unaffiliated with any
OF the great cliques said few days ago,
concerning Lawson: IAN that blame the
man for is that he seeks to scare the de-
t. .rftlcyS Ia C
I'm everything else that he says l agree
with him. I only think that he does not
say it all" II certainly would be revela-
ton, to an outsider to hear the expressions
of sentiment from some of the best of Wall
streets men denunciatory of the methods
of the so-called 26 Broadway crowd, other
wise the Standard Oil party in finance.
Wall street at the present time Is divided
against itself. The big interests who make
and unmake markets are unable to act In
concert upon any program as to prices, and
they have so worked at cross purposes and
have been so divided upon questions vitality
affecting their own interests that they have
suffered Lawson, the Boston bear operator.
TO make them ridiculous by attacking their
stocks and pulling them down. The Amerl-
can public has been acquiring an education
very rapidly in the methods of Its h2ancial
magnates, and there has arisen IN this
country q sentiment which on more occa-
sons than one of late has defeated market
operations conducted by men who have al
WAYS been remarkably successful in an
1icipatng public opinion. The wan street
Journal a publication devoted exclusively
10 the affairs of the financial world, but
which is highly independent and fearless IN
ifs expressions of opinion, displayed with
out comment at the head of its editorial
column one day this week the following ex-
tract from a deliverance of DR.. +. l.. Pat
ton. president of the Princeton Theological
Seminary:
that has accumulated MS Si0.VOO.OOo.
teaches Sunday school regularly, and within
range OF the law drives his hard bargains
every week day. If such men would ask
me what l thought of them, l would con-
s-d :ulate them on keeping out of JAIL The
general tendency now is for each man TO
do unto his neighbor as his neighbor would
dc unto him, only he tries TO do II first
IN. person referred to these scathing
sentences will be as readily Identified by
every newspaper reader as he was by men
OF Wall street. That the person VIII be so
easily recognized, that the use OF his name
is wholly superfiuous, seems a striking
illustration OF the progress OF mat educa-
tioual movement referred to.
one OF the most significant departures or
this period Is the anxiety of the old Stand
ard oil crowd 10 defend itself before the
public. Until a few months ago the chlef
characteristic of this financial orSlhiZAtlon
wa, rs silence under fire. Recently the
general solicitor OF The Standard '4 COM
ptuy issued a statement to the press, Qehy-
ing that The Standard Oil Company had any
interests other than those In OIL ana allied
lines of business About the same time Mr..
H. H. Rogers in u speech, which he made
in Connecticut defended the methods OF
himself and his associates. Then there has
been this discussion on tainted money.
arising from a demand on the part of in
fueuti4l leaders Of religious thought that
John ID Rockefeller's contributors to mis-
sIouary work be refused
Never before since the Standard OIL party
became power in Wall street has II been
thus on the defensive in such public man
ner There is a saying among operators
that no combination of Wall street men can
be greater than the public. 1t IS the pup
Hes money that makes financial operations
possible on a large scale, and in The last
analysis everythin must stand the test OF
public sentiment.
When James W. Alexander, president OF
+be FouitabIe Life Assurance Society.
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