Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1907-04-01
LOCATING BRIDGES PANIC CONSPIRACY;
WALL STREET PANIC BY Rail.
ROAD MAGNATES.
appearances Indicate aPreCOnCerfed
rIOvement to DepreSs Railroad Sc.
Curities, as an Expression of Dis
satisfaction with ROOSevelt'S Pol.
icy of Railroad Rate REGULATION.

Convincing evidence is before the pub
lie that the present Wall street panic is
the direct result Of conspiracy between
railroad presidents and stock jobbers
dissatisfied with President Roosevelt's
policy of railroad rate regulation.
The panic started on Wall street on
March IA. For two weeks prior to that
date interviews predicting panic and dis
aster were given out by high railroad
officials and disseminated all over the
country. For example, A. l.. Mohler,
vice president and general manager Of
the Union Pacific, gave out an interview
at Omaha on March in which he said:
"1 believe this anti-railroad legislation
will shortly produce a panic"
For three days Immediately preceding
the violent break in Wall street many
alarming predictions OF this nature were
given out. J. Pierpont Morgan went
down to Washington with "brass band"
methods on March II, to discuss the sit.
uation with President Roosevelt. After
a conference with the president, Morgan
dictated an interview to the Associated
Press, saying that he had called on the
president to see "what steps might be
taken to aliay the public anxiety now
threatening to obstruct railroad invest
ment and construction so much needed,
and especially to allay the public anxi-
ETY. as to the relations between the rail-
roads and the government"
On the same day, President w. A..
Garrett, of the Seaboard Air Line, gave
out an interview in which he said: 1.-THE
railroads Of this country have reached
the financial danger line on account of
adverse legislation"
! On March IL, A. B. Stickney, presi-
dent OF the Chicago Great Western. gave
out an interview declaring that "the
people are now laying the foundation
firm and strong for a tremendous panic"
On March l3, James j. Hill said before
the senate committee investigating the
value of railroad properties in Minnesota :
"Present conditions would bankrupt
some of the roads in this state. All OF
the railroads OF the country today have
received shock they will not get over
for many, many years."
On the came day, President Benjamin
L. Winchell, of the Rock Island system,
said: II am relying on the sound sense
and fairness of the American people to
stop Eefore the situation becomes acute
financially"
On the same date. A. l.. Mohler, gem
eral manager of the Union Pacific, de-
clared that that system "had entered
upon a policy OF retrenchment because
of adverse legislation, and would imme-
diately discharge $40 men,"
These are but specimens of many Sim
liar calamity threats made by high rail-
road officials and big stock jobbers dur
ing the period of several weeks before
the recent crash in Wall street. Men of
this type do Dot thus attempt to alarm
the country nness they have some deep
purpose. Ii they had really feared a
panic and had wanted to prevent it, ut
terances of the foregoing nature would
never have been made. On the contrary
all OF them would have been busy try
ing to build up confidence.
The calamity utterances of railroad
presidents, managers, and stock manp-
ulators are just the line of talk which
would be expected from cunning and
unscrupuous stock jobbels who had I'M
loaded large part of their stocks at the
high prices which ruled in Wall street
in 1906, and who felt that they had so
diminished their own holdings as to I'M
pair their control of the properties they
manage and wanted to take a new grip
on those properties by buying back at
low prices the very stocks they had un.
loaded at high prices. Spokane Spokes-
man Review.