The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-10-22
OUR POOR MILLIONAIRES.

thousand millions of dollars has beer
by persons specializing in stocks and
bonds in the Exchanges Of eastern
cities-three thousand millions of dol
lars MIXED out of securities" by the
dizzy operations of the last half year.
Yet the country is three thousand mil
lions better off than before; and that's
no paradox either.
The stuff was pumped in, and it was
necessary thai it be MIXED out. 1t rep
reese nted no actual value, but it vitiat
ed actual values Stocks and bonds,
manufactured to sell, costing the man
ufacturecs nothing, some of them put
on the speculative market, others held
by the manufacturers and marked up
daily and hourly to meet the holders
views of his increasing wealth: older
tual or representative value, but
thrown into the gambling market, were
carried in successive cyclOnic WhirlS
up to heights far above earth and
.er the exhalatiOn of the hot air, which
must fly off somewhere as the balloon
descehds-they say these values to
the amount of three thousand millions
Of dollars have gone fiuttering and
giimmering and out of sight. But real
values don't disappear in this way,
taking their flight into f1eecy clouds
and fine spun air. Cleared of their va
pors, the real values are better, much
better, than before.
For the real value Of securities based
Oh solid property and is earning
power, never was so substantial in this
country or in any other country, as in
our country today. The productive
power of the country, shown in the
output of all branches of industry, has
enormously outrun all expectation, yet
obviously has not approached it's limit,
since we See unappropriated resources
on every hand. The railroads have
more business than they can carry;
The manufacturers are behind with
orders, the demand for labor exceeds
the supply, at wages above those ever
paid before anywhere; the markets for
actual products of all kinds are active
and all cereals are making a new rec
ord of prices and the supply is not
Scant, but full. So of the cotton, the
tobacco and other crops; the building
industry everywhere is so active that
producers of materials are Overrun
with orders, and the animal industries.
with their products of meats, butter
and cheese, wool, poultry, eggs ard
fish, are in the stream and rush of
prosperity. Fruit and lumber are the
same. The only complaint is cost of
living queer complaint for a people
who produce so much of everything as
we do. and who still have immeasur-
able resources of productions to draw
upon.
Now the fact that three thousand
millions of fictitious values have been
squeezed out of certain of the agencies
through which the work of production
and distribution Chiefly distribution)
Is carried on is a fact that signalizes
and attests the soundness of the gen
eral prosperity. The producers of
the country do not have to support
longer these fictitious values, on which
the lords of initiation. wanted interests
and profits. AS the country increases in
real wealth, as it gains higher stand
ards of morality and comes 20 itself
and into its own, it is depressing these
sWindling schemes and means to pre
| vent them hereafter. Control of the is
sue of stocks and bonds is to be reg
T, ulated by law and guarded by strict
| supervision. Individuals, singly or in
| association, are not to be permitted to
continue the manufacture of 'securi-
ties as they have been doing to be
! 'unioaded on the market" for the
working people of the country to nav
interest and dividends upon. KnovI
edge of this truth is what has let the
gas to the tune of three thousand mil
mons out of the balloon. The gas is not
! all set free yet
! But the country is in snlendid CON-
! dltion. ard especially our Pacific states
! 1here is no reason for panic, EXCEPT
! among hose who have been burning
! thelr fingers by handling fictitious Sc
: curiteS during the OrOoeScec Of ;,eo
ton and combustion. The country has
! lots OF stuff to sell, and the market de-
mands it all. L can put up without
much suffering with the poverty that
reigns IN the vicinity of Wall and
! Broad streets.-Oregonian
. Inc AlaSkan MaS zeal acnnd from, - I,