The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-09-16
now: IHENALL Street.
BROKERS GET WEALTHY
Every Month Millions Of Dollars
Pour Into Wall Street. from
~: .:.- Country Over.
Most Of It Is from People with
Small Holdings Who Want to
:: Got Rich Quick.

-
flyers in stocks. The perusal OF these
will perhaps make persons
for whose information they are
intended swell up with pride.
It will bring them to an i. ap-
Of all the magniflcence they
support. To start with, 1 quote a man
who is eminent in the commerce in this
city and the nation. He says: Every
month there 10 poured into Wall street
brokers' offices over $50. 900 by people
throughout the country who are anxious
oSpick up little something for moth
ing through the medium Of a quick
gamble. OF this vast sum. over 80
per cent sticks to the brokers' fingers.
About 10 per cent dribbles back to the
investors-to be sent into the street
again; with more added. Wall street
laughs at suckers If there were no
suckers there would be no Wall street.
The brokers rake-off from stock mar
ket deals supports an army of 100000
men, who have desks in the financial
district and homes of various degrees
OF comfort and luxury in the city. In
one building in Broad street there are
$500 men who depend for a living and
whatever of fortune they may amass
upon the fluctuations of, stocks. If
stack gambling did not exist, that build
ing would be tenantlescs, and If all its
tenants went to work, they would in
crease the number Of workingmen in
this country as much as would the an
nexation Of town Of 10000 people to
our territories. There are 100 members
of the New York Stock Exchange, each
of whom has invested about $4,000 for
his "seat"-for the right to buy and
sell stocks for customers on the floor
of the exchange. Each man represents
a firm Of from two to seven members.
Make the average three and you have
$500 men whose incomes are from
SIS, 900 to 100000 year-and the frac
tional daily fluctuations Of stocks pay
them this vast revenue. Each firm
a curb broker and from six to
forty clerks, at salaries from $25 to
800 per month. The eighths and quar-
ters that are chalked up on the board
In the brokers' offices pay all these
From the head of the firm
down to the humblest clerk, there is
not producer In the lot. Then there
are the banks-nearly enough Of them
to make a solid street from Fulton to
the Battery. They support from so to
$50 men each, at salaries from $1,000 to
500 900 per year, by merely handling
the money that flows into Wall street
ana keeping little bit Of each amount
that passes through their tills.. There
are the. Consolidated, the Produce, the
Mining, the Cotton, the Coffee, ana
other exchanges, with their thousands
Of members and their clerks and under
lings which each member must have in
his employ. There are hundreds Of law
yers- many Of them having tremendous
incomes-who do nothing but Wall
streets law business. Then there is an
army Of messengers, stenographers and
other dependents at salaries which are
too small to mention in this capitula-
ton. All of them live on the money
that the country sends into Wall street,
and every man who sends his money in
expects to get it out with something
added to it.
York come from Wall street-or their
incomes do. The poorest member Of
the Stock Exchange is worth $1o0,000
and the richest $6o,o0o,ooo. There IS
hardly man in the exchange who has
MT his automobile, and every one out of
twenty has his steam yacht. 1t costs
from $4,000 to 100000 year to main
tain g. steam yacht such as Wall
street man would consider worthy Of
the name. When you come to think it
all over, the estimate Of the eminent
authority whom, I quoted
at the beginning of this letter SCENE
small. It doesn't seem
by half, to keep Wall street
going. And the subject suggests an in
cident of the last international yacht
races, in which an Englishman gave
vent to bit Of unconscious humor
which no member Of his race ever ex-
celled. He was one of party aboard
an excursion steamer, going out to see
the races. An American friend was
pointing out the various steam yachts
in the fleet, and telling the names of
their owners. The Englishman listened
thoughtfully as the, brief Identification
of each boat and her owner was given,
him. Finally he said: 'sBless me! Do
they all belong to brokers? Where are
the customers yachtsT'-J. M. Allison.