The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-06-29
Boston. Calamity Howler.

ION the way and coming fast, =,
calamity for Wall street." Steel
preferred now selling at l05 will fall
to 50'-these are few sentences at
random from the latest bulletin Of the
Boston frenzifier. The stock market
sinceSits issue fails to show any marked
effect. The street has passed up Law
son as a calamity prophet. His screeds
and dire announcements now fall fat
where at one time they sent nervous
ness thru the financial center. and often
had effect. ... &@
Lawson is indeed an odd character.
In a way he has been right and in sew
erai ways he has been wrong, Looking
back over the past year It must be said
that on the whole he was moving
force for good, tho tsensationalism
marred his efforts, and mighty ego, ever
present and all-pervading, put per-
fsonal color upon every move. What
ever of nobility: Of character and de-
sire for righteousness might have been
discerned in the man when he first
doomed up as magazine writer and ex-
poser Of wrongdoing was finally lost in
his gross self conceit. Moreover he
lacked the newspaper instinct and
dragged his articles out over too many
instalments, always promising the big
disclosure to come, until at last he be-
came tiresome and people refused
longer to follow him. sfs.s o.t Il.
At the time when he came west and
met the governors Of states graphing
with great questions affecting the peo-
pie, he looked to many like a new lead
| others, who never took him seriously,
he looked like pursuer of the 'tbubble
reputation" lover of publicity, a
grandstand player. Going back to Bos-
/ ton he soon fell into innocuousness and
has been. heard from only at intervals
when he has issued announcements OF
the coming doom which to date has
failed to come. l.s, Il .ss-.e-15ss
If any condensation of the Lawson
] plan and purpose were possible it would
probably be found in the statement
j that as stock market manipulation he
4 had advance knowledge of crookedness
] in high places, Of which the. genera
1 public at that time suspected nothing
Evidently it was Lawson s belief that
these things were sure to come out
sooner or later, In which he was right
No doubt he figured that he might a.
well get the publicity attaching to thu
original exposer. But he went wrong
in his calculation Of the effect. The
country was too prosperous, too SOUND
at heart, and there were too many good
]. honest people doing business In the old
4 fashioned way for the disclosures tina
4 afterward came to have the bad effec
1 financially that Lawson might have cal
Il culated upon. 0 #4aa
4 At present Lawson is playing a sur,
thing. He cannot lose. He is predict
/ ing great declines in the stock market
i Like the man who goes around waiting
4 to be struck BY lightning who is sur,
| to be struck if he lives long enough, s,
i Lawson is sure to see decline SOM
day. It may be tomorrow, in sis
months, a year, several years. Alread,
he has predicted it for eight month
and II has not come. But, of course
i there will be a big bear market som
/. day, and then. if the present genera
tion be on earth or not, Lawson vii
j make good. for he can simply point t,
i the declines and say, g told you SO
4 i said SO ali. along. rs s=T