Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1906-11-22
THE
| SPENDERSI
A Tale Of the Third Generation |
By HARRY LEON WILSON |
q -
copyrisht. by Lothrop Publishing Company
CHAPTER XIV.

L
Copyrights. by Le,hrop Publishing Company.
CHAPTER XIV.
How THE CHINOOK CAME TO WALL
STREET.
| The loss OF much money Is COM
monty subject to be managed with
,revity and aversion by one who sits
Town with the right reverence for
iheets of clean paper. To bewail is
painful. To affect lightness, on the
,ther hand, would, in this age, SAVIOR
II insincerity, II not Of downright
,lasphemy. More than bare recital
# the wretched facts, therefore, is not
eemly.
The Bines fortune disappeared much
IS a heavy fall of snow melts under
he Chinook wind.
That phenomenon is not uninterest-
ng. We may picture far-reaching
waste of snow, wind-furrowed until 1t
resembles billowy white sea frozen
notionless. The wind blows half a
,ale and the air is full OF fine ice crys-
ais that sting the face viciously. The
mn, lying low on the southern horizon,
seems mere frozen globe, with lus-
rous pink crescents encircllng It.
One day the wind backs and shifts.
4 change portends. Even the herds OF
ialf-frozen range cattle sense 1t by
tome subtle beast knowledge. They
ire no longer afraid to lie down as
hey may have been for q week. The
danger of freezing has passed. The
temperature has been at so degrees
below zero. Now. suddenly 1t begins
10 rise. The air Is scarcely In mo-
lion, but occasionally II descends as
out Of a blast furnace from overhead.
To the southeast Is mass Of dull
black clouds. Their face Is unbroken.
But the upper edges are ragged, torn
by wind not yet felt below. Two
hours later its warmth comes. In ten
minutes the mercury goes up S5 de.
grees. The wind comes at 30-mile
velocity. It increases In strength and
warmth, blowing with mighty roar
Twelve hours afterward the snow
three feet deep on level, has melted
There are bald. brown hills every
where to the horizon, and the plains
are flooded with water. The Chinook
has come and gone. In this manner
suddenly went the Bines fortune.
April 80, Consolidated Copper closed
1T 81. Two days later, May 2, the
drop Of 40 points. Roughly the decline
meant the loss OF S10o,0O0,000 to thu
$1,000 shareholders. From every city
same Inflated stock closed at 61--s
Of importance In the country CAM
tales more or less tragic OF holding
wiped out, of ruined families, OF defal
cations and suicides. The losses Il
New York city alone were said to b
$50, 100000. A few large holders, re
puted to enjoy inside information
were said to have put their stock asid
and sold short" In the knowledge o
what was coming. Such tales are al
ways popular In the street.
Others not less popular had to d.
win the reasons for the slump. Man.
were plausible. A deal with the Roths
childs for control Of the Spanish mine
had fallen through. Or, again, tn
|
Of Federal Oil operators, who wer
bent on forcing some one to unload
great quantity OF the stock 80 tina
they might absorb II. The immediate
causes were less recondite. The Con
solidated company, SO far from con
trolling the output, was suddenl.
shown to control actually less than 8
per cent. OF It. Its efforts to ament
or repeal the hardy old law OF Suppl.
and Demand had simply met with tn,
Indifferent success that has marked al
such efforts since the first attempted
corner In stone hatchets, or mastodoi
eusks, or whatever 1t may have been
In the language Of one OF its news
paper critics, the trust" had beef
founded on misconception ant
prompted along lines of self-destruc
ton. Its fundamental principles wer'
the restriction of product, the in
crease of price and the throttling o
competition, a trinity that woulC
wreck any combination, business, po
litical or social"
With this generalization we have NJ
concern AS to the copper situation
the comment was pat. 1t had beer
suddenly disclosed, not only that M
combination could be made to include
the European mines, but that the Con
solidated company had an unsold sur
plus OF 150,ovO,0o0 pounds Of copper
that It was producing 100000 pounds
month more than could be sold, AM
that 1t had made large secret sale
abroad at from two to three cents be
low the market price.
| AS II fearing that these adverse con
ditions did not sufficiently insure tn
stocks downfall, the Shepler group o
Federal Oil operators beat It dowl
further with what was vertically
golden sledge. That Is, they exporte'
gold at loss. At time when obliga
tons could have been met more cheap
ly with bought bills they sent GU
many golden cargoes at an actual los
of $500 on the half million. AS none.
was already dear, and thus becam
dearer, the temptation and the mean
% hold copper stock, In spite OF all dis