Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-23
KEEP COOL

wall streetS financial influence, which,
II properly used. may be made Of untold
value.
Since the close of the Civil War and
until the wonderful prosperity of the
past decade has made the middle west.
the west and south independent of Wall
street the control which the influence
centering there had exercised over the
finances of the country had many
times been CALLING and most times
unfortunate for the balance of the
country.
Until within the past few years the
fact that the New York financial insti-
tutions and operators, collectively re-
fered to as Wall street, possessed the
largest amount of ready money in the
country gave them an opportunity for
exploiting the remainder Of the coun-
try for their own particular bene-
fit, and this opportunity was never
neglected and was frequently usedin
manner very oppressive to the remain
der of the country and particularly to
the west and south.
For some years past and at the pres
ent time conditions have been entirely
changed. BY the tricks of "frenzied
finance" the operators of the great in
surance companies, railroad and indus
trial corporations centering in Wall
street have brought such discredit upon
the institutions which they represent as
has prevented the money of the people
from flowing into Wall street as it ince
did, and this money, owing to the great
expansion of business and the wonder
full opening of business opportunities all
over the country, has found profitable
investment at home barring some mil
lions which are carried by New York
banks as call loans due the banks in
different portions of the country.
Within the past few days some of the
financial institutions centering in Wall
street have been having trouble, and it
is notable fact that these institutions
are the ones which have been most CON-
pletely dominated by the most objec-
tionable element in the financial life of
New York.
The various banks out of which
Messrs. Heinze and Morse were re-
Gently forced were notable examples of
these. Heinze during all of his career
has been a financial gambler, pure and
simple, and the fact that he was able
to become the head of great financial
institution in New York only shows
how little careful and conservative
financiering has controlled the bapk-
ing life of that city for some time,
Mr.. Morse, his associate, has probably
made himself more odious as the pro-
moter of Objectionable trusts than any
other man in America. He is the man
who a few years ago organized the ice
trust whose first act was to take adj
vantage of an unusually hot summer in
New York and vicinity and arbitrarily
raised the price of ice, thereby infiict-
ing untold suffering, especially upon
the poor, and making himself directly
responsible, as charged in the news
papers at that time, for the death of
many children in the city of New York
who were deprived of necessity of
life on account of the excessive price
at which ice was Sold
The Knickerbocker Trust company,
which yesterday suspended payment,
was another center of frenzied finan-
ciering, and two months ago, when the
writer was in New York, he was told
by some of the conservative financiers
of that city that this institution was
under suspicion on account of the
methods which had for some time
characterized the acts of those in con-
troll of it..
The present extremely prosperous
conditions existing in the middle west,
the west and the south give the people of
these sections an opportunity of assert
ing their independence Of Wall streets
financiers which has never presented it
self before, and which If they fail to
take advantage Of it may not present
itself again for many years.
The cotton crop of the south is ex-
cellent, and 1t is estimated by the gov
ernment experts that at the present
prices it will bring into that section for
the staple and its by-products of cotton
seed oil and seed cake billion dollars,
probably three-fourths of which will
come from abroad, and will mean that
much new money being brought into
the United States.
The wheat and corn crops of the
middle west and west, while not bum
per crops, are probably as large, with
one or two exceptions, as the country
ever saw, and sold at prevailing prices
will bring more cash to the farmers
than they have ever received for a crop
before.
Coming nearer home, our own walnut
crop is selling at the best prices which
have been known for years. The citrus
crop promises well, and the present
prices are the best that have been
known for a long time.
While the financial condition in New
York and the extreme east may pos
sibly discourage some of the people of
that section from travelling extensively
this winter yet Southern California has