The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1905-02-24
STANDARD OIL ANSWERS
Mr.. LAWSON WITH
A BOOM IN STOCKS.

af. Lawson offers $4,000 if the
STANDARD Oil psopls win meet him in
public debate. OF course they will not
DO it. We think Mr.. Lawson went just
little to far in including Me3srs. Rookie
fsller and Rodgers, but taere is no ex-
euse for tine others 10 refuse unless it
be that they aaye put into tae fight
suen methods as no white man ever
should use. Iiasir main reason, low
ever, for they are nsryy men, is that
tine fgnt is in the stock market. Taat
is where Mr.. Lawson got done up. that
is waere We all get done up and That
Is where Mr.. Lawson hopes 10 g, even.
50 far as Mr.. Lnwson's speculative
charges are concerned We believe tney
are trne TO the letter, but wnen it comes
TO upsetting existing financial conditions
we are of the opinion that ne has in
view plan ,itopian. While it is a
broad statement we assert That the en-
tire growth and prosperity of our civil
lied world is due to the stock market
Now, understand us; We do not refer
to the stosk iobbing purposes for which
the stock market is only too often used
nor do we confine ourselves to the four
walls of the New York Stock Exchange
We claim that but for corporations no
big industry ever could have been con.
<uctej. There was nsver a man so
ricn tuntil the present time) who could
have built a railroad. It was by form
ing stock companies and selling the
shares to tne hundreds and thousands of
our people that tine money to build the
railroads and to carry on tine big manu-
featuring plants, was gotten together.
If there had been no stock market these
shares never could have been sold and
We would today nave been without all
waicn makes business what it is. No
big factories, no lorg railroads. W.
would still nave been a primitive people.
Persons who do not look deeply
enough into the subject consider tae
stock market merely specuiating pro-
position. 1t is anything but that. Taa
speculative part of it is very small when
compared to the actua, market for Sc
curities.
Suppose Mr.. lawson were 10 succeed
in smashing the System Here is what
would happen. The richest men in the
world, the men of brains who have made
tnis country what il is would be ruined.
for mark this point. Say what YOU
please about tnem and their corporations
they have their wealth all to the last
dollar invested in the shares Of these
selfsame corporations; they believe in
tnem above all else, They don't sell
their shares to the public and then put
the money into real estate and hoard it.
Smash the price of these securities to
nothing, and you ruin the men VINO
have made the world what it is. but be-
fore that point was reached the public
would be bankrupt. Every man nav
ing few thousand OF few hundred.
thousand dollars invested in securities
or deposited in the banks would see his
all being swept away, never to return.
MI stocks from bank shares to worthless
mining shares would 20 down in tae
raid. Banks from ocean TO ocean would
close their doors and il would BE- ruin.
chaos fer all-bnt for while only. for
the men Of brains. the men wno are now
masters of the financial world. would get
the situation again in hand and would
rise from the wreck more RIGA and pow
erful than ever. But What a trial of
suffering would be left benind. This is
what we believe wol Id happen snoul
Mr.. Lawson smash ia System, as he is
trying to do.
Mr.. Lawson. we believe, thinks ne can
20 half way; that ne can wipe out the
speculative features of the Stock mar.
ket and leave the good. II ne could he
would accomplish a great workout he
can not do it.
We believe that certain parts of the
System are, as Mr.. Lawson says, simply
rotten.
We do not believe that Mr. Lawson is
tae liar and fakir that the System says
ne is.
We know that as the result of it all
You have, for the very first time, even
L.. Il :. L-........ - -,