The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-02-26
BRYAN ATTACKS STOCK CAMBL INC
He Tells the Civic Forum That Stealing in Modern
Times is Divided Into Petit Larceny, Grand
Larceny and Glorious Larceny.
Says Wall Street Has Turned Out More Embezzers
Than Fagin's School Did Thieves.

II am aware that here in New
York." said he, "the Stock Exchange
is regarded with certain amount Of
veneration and that many who We
hemently denounce gambling in a
backroom where winnings and losses
are small, remain strangely silent in
the presence of the enormous games
that are played upon the stock mar
ket, often with loaded dice. Gambling
is one of the worst of vices, and
gambling in stocks and farm products
is the most destructive form in which
| the vice appears. Measured by the
number Of suicides caused by the
New York Stock Exchange, Monte
Carlo is an innocent pleasure resort
by comparison. Measured by the
amount of money changing hands, the
contrast is still greater in favor Of
Monte Carlo; and measured by the
influence upon those who do not gam
BILE, the evils of Monte Carlo are in
significant when compared with the
evils of New York's commercial
gambling houses. The New York
Stock Exchange has graduated more
embezzlers than Fagin's school did
thieves.
After a crusade which convulsed
State and at least impressed the
thought Of the Nation, we got rid Of
the Louisiana lottery and then we
congratulated ourselves upon our vir-
tue. The men in charge of the lottery
never did tithe Of the harm that the
grain gamblers and the stock gam
blers of New York do every day, nor
did they ever exercise anything like
the corrupting influences over poli-
tics. 1t has been asserted without
denial that ninety-nine per cent. Of
the New York purchases and sales Of
stock and of produce are merely bets
upon the market value, with no in
tention upon the part Of the vendor
to deliver, or on the part of the pur-
chaser to receive. This is not busi-
ness; it is not commerce; it is not
speculation; it is common, vulgar
gambling, and when to the ordinary
chances that the gambler takes are
added the extraordinary chances due
to the secret manipulation Of the mar
ket by those who are on the inside,
the stock market becomes worse than
an honestly conducted gambling re-
sort. If man takes a chance upon
wheel of fortune, he knows just
what his chance is,. and he knows
that the owner Of the wheel has a
percentage Of chances in his favor,
but when stranger CANDLES upon
the stock or grain market he is at the
mercy of those who, by obtaining con-
troll of the visible supply, can destroy
every natural law or business rule
which the outsider knows. 1 beg
the spiritual advisers Of our great
cities to consider whether they cannot
advance religion as we'll as morality
by pointing out that the command
ment, Thou shalt not steal, is openly
and notoriously violated in the stock
market and in the grain pit by those
who profess to believe in the Bible
and to have respect for it's teachings.
"The swollen fortunes against
which the President justly inveighs,
almost without exception find their
source in special privileges and in
Governmental favoritism which legal
ize injustice; it is not strange that the
humble members of society complain,
but it is strange that conscience does
not more often restrain the rich and
the potent from asking for such un-
fair advantages.
"The commandment, Thou shalt
not steal will not have the weight
that it ought to have among men un-
til it Is so construed as to bring the
feeling of guilt and shame to those
who draw from the common store
more than they add in service. If we
can but create a sentiment which, will
make men ashamed, not only of
wrongdoing but Of idleness as we'll,
and fill them with an earnest desire
to make generous return to society
for all the blessings that society con-
fers, it will be easier to prevent those
varieties Of larceny which are so diff
cult to define and which the officers
of the law find it hard to detect and
punish"