The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-28
THE NEED FOR THE MAN
"


 Josh Billings tells of mule whose owner. in turning him into one pasture, always turned him into the enc next door and let him jump the fence. My pencil. sharpened on a sim liar bias, has 90 much in common with both Macaulay and the mule. that now, when am to write of C. F. King of Bosten and New York. distinguished among many corporations as Finan- cial Agent and President or Managing Director. 1t insists upon commencing by writing about myself, who am with out flscal celebration.
 The beginning of things lay In an article I had just finished for . popu- lar magazine concerning the New York Stock Exchange. I had to study my subject, I promise you; for. when the magasine gave me the assignment. I was as ignorant of stocks as of San- scrit.
 For myself, I have no aptitude for commerce, and come of family as de- that one of my forebears on the pa- ternal side. by a procession of acci- dents and lucky monetary tumbles. up- on . single occasion. piled Pelion on Ossa until his heaped up hill of dizzy riches reached twenty-five thousand dollars. At this point some one, not of my family. came along and took 1t all This, as I say. Is among the traditions of the tribe, and lives as for tunes high-water mark for my house.
 On the maternal side the look back is equally somber. Not one of them ever possessed a splinter beyond the day Their family name is Tracy; and there is a distich about them in their native Devonshire, which reaches rearward to . bloody moment of Can terbury. and may carry within it the seeds of an explanation. It runs:
 Since Becket and Tracys.
 Have had the wind in their faces"
 Following that magazine outburst concerning the New York Stock Ex- my labors in Martins. which is pro- nounced "Maartan's" and is successor to the old Delmonico's. There was with me . gentleman who. because he Is modest, shall be Dameless. but who Is of consequence in the business offices of . we'll known publishing house. During my off-hours. I cultivate friend ly relations with those money folk of ink. For are they not the purse-bear- CTS of literature7 And have l not dear ones at home. profoundly predisposed to spend money7
 Why seats are Worth S1oo,o0o 600.
 Being full of my recent strivings Stock Exchange, and willing to show my gentleman of day books and led gers, pounds. shillings and pence. that | was not uninstructed touching sub jects near hts gold-clinking soul, broke into discourse concerning wall Street speculations; and, by way or illustration, told tragic tales of mans undoing, through shares that on mar gins had been bought and sold.
 ''The floor of the exchange" I cried in fine heat of righteousness. "is worth roundly one hundred million dollars. And why? Because more than three hundred millions of shares are sambied with annually. The brokers 'commis- sion,' which corresponds to the gamo- linr halrs percentage, is $12.50 for every one hundred shares. And, since when one broker buys another broker sells the double commission amounts to 325 on one hundred shares, or $95,- 900, 900 on the whole exchange year This enormous treasure, divided as It is among the eleven hundred orokers who own seats maxes the reason why that seat franchise of the Stock Fx- change floor Is held at $90.000 for each .seat.' Who pays it? Who maintains these seat values? Why, gullible public crowding to be heeced. Of all the get-rich quick games that. since the Mississippi Bubble days of Law. have been devoted to the pillage of mankind, stock speculations. conduct ed by brokers through Stock Exchanges and their handmaidens. the bucket shops, are at the head.
 In Stocks as . Business-Not . Crime. |.
 Then, by way of side-light. I men tioned that the family mansion or Captain Kidd once stood upon the present site of the New York Stock Exchange, and considered how that free booter, were he to return. would sit abashed as a rustic and mere farmer of piracy, in the presence of what pres ent-day stock buccaneers have sup planted him in his old Broad Street home. Also, expressed astonishment that someone, in view of what should be the sure legitimate profits of such enterprise. didn't take up stocks as a business and not as crime.
 It was at this crisis the name of c. F. King was brought forth. My list ener, seizing upon my closing remarks. observed:
 The stock world is not so barren of good men or right motives as you think, and Diogones shall not light his lantern in vain. Across the street, in the St. James Building. you can find a gentleman, the non-existence of whose kind you so feelingly deplore. c. F. King, who signs himself 'Finan- cial Agent. and who occupies the en- tire second floor of the St. James. to say nothing of offices equally spacious in Boston, has done what you recom- mend. He has gone into stocks as a business and not as a crime. He Is the sworn enemy of stock gambling and Stock Exchanges; and his warword Is Don't speculate! Invest" "
 Now, what had said of wonder at the failure of folk to go into stocks as a business and not as a crime, was an effort of smartness and epigram rather than anything more hopeful I had been pleased with the successful pert fiippancy of the sentence; I was doubly pleased when told that a gen. tleman had actually forestalled me in the thought, justified its sapiency and acted upon it. Moreover the name "J. F. King was in no wise new to me, for even in these cold, dollarless re- gions where dwell the writing tribe victorious echoes from battlef1eldS of money, where strive our Titans of finance, are sometimes heard Yes, l had been told of MT. King. as among the Colossi of the Companies. and now I desired to hear more of him.
 "C. F. King?' repeated. Tell me about him
 A Rare Man, Believing in Honesty.
 My friend, whose trade Is ducats and whose information concerning money men Is wide. showed himself nothing loath to talk. By his word learned that c. F. King was SO far unique as to abide firmly by the aphorism-in the teeth of startling examples to the apparent contrary-that Honesty Is the best Policy. This of itself was suffl- cient to distin guish him. and cause him to stand out against the dingy