Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-01-30

Though this is the twentieth century
and enlightment is supposed to prevail
throughout this broad land of ours, the
majOrity Of neople still gard the world
of finance as the world of magic. With
in the fairy realm Of finance the laws of
nature apparently are suspended, and,
overnight, wonders are worked. The
ordinary mortal, wise in all other walks
of life, see the man who yesterday stood
beside him at the plough or at the bench
emerging from the mysterious portals
bearing the fruits of the endeavors of y
hundred or a thousand lives. made all in
moment out OF nothing. There is no
denying such magic, nor that the magi.
clans who preform these miracles are
entitled to veneration. So the ordinary
mortal feels that he has no license to
enter the world of finance save on his
knees, hat in hand, bearing tribute to
the divinities enthroned within this en-.
| chanted territory.
1t is my purpose in this chapter to do
away with this extraordinary deception
and to show it up as one OF the artifices
with which tricksters. since the begin.
ming of the world, have imposed upon
the people. There should be nothing in
| finance that any man or woman of ordin-
ary intelligence and experience cam ct
understand, and purpose, before going
any further, to explain the machinery Of
the "System" 80 that every one will ex.
actly understand it from headlight to
rear.end lantern. Many intelligent peo-
pie have no clear idea OF what certi-
ticate of stock or bond really is, and
the words "money," "s.ock exchange" )"
! and "inanc are mere terms which
they glibly use without knowledge OF
their meaning.
1t is not difficult to understand the
grocery or the dry goods business. Stand.
ard articles OF wel.known form are sold
by weight or measure over the counters
for fair prices. The patrons of such busi-
ness insist on knowing what they are
buying--what they are to get in ex-
change for the money which is the fruit
OF their labor, and then, after they have
been told, and they trade, they require
that the goods be as described or they
will know why not. The average Ameri.
can would consider it huge joke should
his grocer undertake to induce him to
buy one hundred times more suga, than
he could use, on the ground that he
might find in the sugar bags when he
reached home gold and diamonds. But
would he not wrathfuly seek the police
if, after he opened his sugar bag, for
which he had paid $l.OO he found it
contained only SO cents worth OF sugar?
He would tell you if you met him at
this stage, "You can bet that chap on
the corner cannot get away with any
such trick as that-not in America. He
might in Zanzibar or in the province OF
the Sultan of Sulu, but will show him
he cannot rob Americans in this, the
twentieth century," The grocer would be
hustled to Jail without ''by your
leave" and thence forward his name
would be byword among all honest
tradesmen.
And so it goes in every business but
finapce-the most important of all, the
business into which is merged all other
businesses, the business of taking and
preserving the results OF all other busi-
nessess, OF all other human endeavor.
Over our land today are big able Ameri.
cans, long-headed and experienced,
adept at jack-kniie swap or horse
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. farmers, hard-handed
miners, shrewd manufacturers, each in
his own line good business man, yet
these sturdy traders, whom the "gold
brick" artist or the "green goods" prac.
titioner would never dream of tacking,
come weekly into Wall street. or into its
branch shops which exist in every COM
munity on the continent, and are done