Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24

Rev. William Wilkinson. for many years
a well-known Episcopal Clergyman in Min
neapolis and throughout the state of Mime
sofa, spent the summers OF 1873 and 1906 in
Wall street New York, holding daily meet
ings He has given the following as Il cler-
gyman's view of the great money center:
1.-THE public mind in our republic is in no
state to Disseminated it flies from one gen.
eral conclusion to another in regard to men
and things in wholesale manner, and in
Its blame and praise is alike without just
and adequate discrimination. When the
words wall street" are spoken they are by
many taken to stand for intrenched, iron
clad evil, for scheme and plot against the
public good, against the exercise by the
many of those rights and liberties by the
masses of the people which have made this
mighty nation the wonder of the, world
and all this that a few men may exploit
their own plans for their own private per-
sonal gain, so they may become wealthy,
and, when they have gained their ends,
show their vulgar wealth under every rising
and setting sun. l say this is the popular
view of Wall street and it's makers and
men. This is because Wall street is the
center of the money power of this CONT
nent and soon will be in all human prob
ability of the world.
Il may venture to affirm that this view
is a very mistaken one and is a very inju-
rious one. Its bad effects are seen and felt
in every department of our manifold ma
tional life. its bad effect is known and felt
throughout the civilized world. That there
are selfish men, INSCRIPTIONS men in Wall
street. that the street has been the scene of
nefarious plots, that ii has witness d swim
dies of great magnitude, all the reading
world knows and all the air-minied and
just men deplore and denounce, and no.
where are such things more deplored or
more unsparingly denounced than in Wall
street by men who represent every kind of
interest on the street. And these men are
in all walks of life. from clerks to the presi-
dents of the largest businesses. We may be
very sure Wall street has no use for knaves
or fools as soon they are found out to
be such. and in the last analysis a plum
derer whether of life insurance company
or any other concern. is both. He stands in
his own light, he signs his own moral and
financial death warrant. OF this mighty
fact there have been in this republic strik-
ing examples in the last two years-men
who today stand as beacons to warn all
who think OF entering upon any path of
gain which separates from honesty.
Having said all this, let US now look at
the other side of Wall street. In it and in
the streets near to it, every working day in
the year. are more than 100000 men whose
lives arc lived under the pressure of con-
they do. Every man has a place to fill
and fills it, or by him it would not be held
long. The number of these men who are
now in places of vast responsibility, who be-
gan as office boys or clerks, is amazing.
One of them 1 know well who today is at
the head of a trust company's loan depart
ment, has the superintendent of S1O,OO0,OUO
of loans on real estate. Another know be-
gan at 81 a week. who is now vice presi-
dent of a bank which has over S150,000, 600
of deposits, \ third, who is great preSi-
dent of a great railway, began as a brake
man.
And these men, and they represent
thousands, have risen, not by ways which
are dark, but by diligence, character,
straightforward honesty, and it is very safe
to say, and it is the simplest truth when it
is said, in all the world there is no place
where spotless honesty is more more highly
valued than it is in v, all street, or where it
is better rewarded when found. 1t is an
incredible thing that it should be other
wise; it is an incredible thing that it could
be.