Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-05-29
Copyright, by Lothrop Publishing Company.
CHAPTER XIV.

Copyright, by LothroD Publishing Company.
CHAPTER XIV.
HOW THE CHINOOK CAME TO WALL
STREET.
The loss of much money is COM
monty subject to be managed with
brevity and aversion by one who sits
down with the right reverence for
sheets of clean paper. To bewail is
painful. To affect lightness, on the
other hand, would, in this age, SAVIOR
of insincerity, If not of downright
blasphemy More than a bare recital
Of the wretched facts, therefore, is not
seemly.
The Bines fortune disappeared much
as heavy fall of snow melts under
the Chinook wind.
That phenomenon is not uninterest-
ing. We may picture a far-reaching
waste of snow, wind-furrowed until it
resembles billowy white sea frozen
motionless. The wind blows half a
gale and the air is full of fine ice crys-
tails that sting the face viciously. The
sun, lying low on the southern horizon,
seems a mere frozen globe, with lus-
rous pink crescents encircling it.
One day the wind backs and shifts.
"A change portends. Even the herds of
half-frozen range cattle sense it by
some subtle beast knowledge. They
are no longer afraid to lie down as
they may have been for week. The
danger of freezing has passed. The
temperature has been at so degrees
below zero. Now, suddenly it begins
to rise. The air is scarcely in mo-
ton, but occasionally it descends as
out Of q blast furnace from overhead.
10 the southeast is a mass of dull
black clouds. Their face is unbrokep.
But the upper edges are ragged, torn
by a wind not yet felt below. Two
hours later it's warmth comes. In ten
minutes the mercury goes up IS de-
grees. The wind comes at 30-mile
velocity. 1t increases in strength and
warmth blowing with a mighty roar.
Twelve hours afterward the snow,
three feet deep on a level, has melted.
There are bald, brown hills every
where to the horizon, and the plains
are flooded with water. The Chinook
has come and gone. In this manner
suddenly went the Bines fortune.
April 30, Consolidated Copper closed
at 81. T~o days later, May 2, the
drop OF 40 points. Roughly the decline
meant the loss of $1O0,000,OO0 to the
$4,000 shareholders. From every city
same Inflated stock closed at 51-a
of importance in the country came
tales more or less tragic of holdings
wiped out, of ruined families, Of defal-
cations and suicides. The losses in
New York city alone were said to be
$50,000,000. A few large holders, re-
puted to enjoy inside information,
were said to have put their stock aside
and sold short" in the knowledge of
what was coming. Such tales are al
ways popular in the street.
Others not less popular had to do
with the reasons for the slump. Many
were plausible. A deal with the Roths-
childs for control of the Spanish mines
had fallen through. Or, again, the
slaughter was due to the Shepler group
of Federal Oil operators, who were
bent on forcing some one to unload a
great quantity Of the stock so that
they might absorb it. The Immediate
causes were less reconcile. The Con-
solidated company, so far from con-
trolling the output, was suddenly
shown to control actually less than SO
per cent. Of it. Its efforts to amend
Or repeal the hardy old law of Supply
and Demand had simply met with the
Indifferent success that has marked all
such efforts since the first attempted
corner in stone hatchets, or mastodon
, tusks, or whatever it may have been.
In the language Of one of it's news
paper critics, the trust" had been
founded on misconception and
prompted along lines of self-destruc-
ton. Its fundamental principles were
the restriction of product, the in
crease of price and the throttling of
competition, trinity that would
wreck any combination, business, po-
litical or social"
, With this generalization we have no
concern AS to the copper situation,
the comment was pat. 1t had been
suddenly disclosed, not only that no
combination could be made to include
the European mines, but that the Con-
solidated company had an unsold sur
plus of 150,00O,O00 pounds Of copper;
that it was producing 100000 pounds
a month more than could be sold, and
that it had made large secret sales
abroad at from two to three cents be-
low the market price.
AS if fearing that these adverse con-
ditions did not sufficiently insure the
stocks downfall, the Shepler group of
Federal Oil operators beat it down
I further with what was vertically a
1 golden sledge. That is, they exported
gold at loss At time when obliga-
B tons could have been met more cheap
ly with bought bills they sent out
many golden cargoes at an actual loss
of $500 on the half million. AS money
was already dear, and thus became
& dearer, the temptation and the means
s to hold copper stock, in spite of all dis
couragements, were removed from the
paths of hundreds of the harried hold
ers. 4
Incidentally, Western Trolley had
gone into the hands of a receiver, a
i failure involving another 100000, 900,
and Union Cordage had fallen IS
points through sensational disclosures
as to its oyercapitalization:
Into this maelstrom of panic mar