Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-02-07
NOTHING BUT GAMBLING.
Mr.. Bryan Takes Fall Out of the
Speculative Exchanges.

speculative Exchanges
Unjust taxation, the manner in which
some private monopolies are conducted
and gambling in stocks and farm pro-
ducts were declared to be nothing more
than a form of larceny by William j.
Bryan in an address before the Civic
Forum, Of New York last Tuesday
night. The stock and produce markets
came in for most bitter denunciation.
He said the New York stock exchange
has graduated more emhezzlers than
Fagan's school did thieves, that meas
ured by the number Of suicides Monte
Carlo is an innocent pleasure resort as
compared with the New York institu-
ton and that the men who once had
charge of the Louisiana lottery never
did tithe Of the harm that the grain
gamblers and the stock gamblers OF
New York do every day.
When a group Of men gamble at
wheel of fortune or at game of cards,
said Mr.. Bryan, "the injury done is
confined to them and to those immedi-
ately dependent upon them, but those
who gamble in the grain pit or on the
floor of the stock exchange deal in COM
lmodities or securities in which eighty
millions of people are directly or indi-
rectly interested Farm products are
iuggled up or juggled down, stocks are
boosted by the bulls or depressed by the
bears, and the whole country feels the
effect. The natural laws Of supply and
demand ought to regulate prices, but
these laws are entirely suspended when
few men can by their bets add mil
lions of dollars to the market value Of
one product or take millions of dollars
from the value Of another product. Af-
ter crusade which cOnvulsed a state
and at least impressed the thought OF
the nation, we got rid Of the Louisiana
lottery and then we congratulated our
selves upon our virtue. The men In
charge Of the lottery never did tithe
of the harm that the grain gamblers
and the stock gamblers of New York
do every day, nor did they ever exer-
else ANYTHING like the corrupting intlu-
ences over politics. 1t has been assert
ed without denial that 80 per cent of
the New York purchases and sales of
stock and of produce are merely bets
upon the market value. with no inten-
ton on the the part of the vender to
deliver, or on the part Of the purchaser
to receive.
This is not business; it Is not COM
merce; it is not speculation; it is COM
mon, vulgar gambling. and when to the
ordinary chances that the gambler
takes are added the extraordinary
chances due to the secret manipulation
Of the market by those who are on the
inside, the stock market becomes worse
| than an honestly conducted gambling
resort. If a man takes chance upon
q 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 stran-
ger CANDLES upon the stock or grain
market he is at the mercy of those who,
| by obtaining control of the visible
supply can destroy every natural law
or business rule which the outsider
knows. While the laws Of each state
and the laws of the nation should pre-
vent as far as laws can, the use of
these commercial activities for gamb-
ling purposes. there must be back Of
the law an educated public opinion and
7 beg the spiritual advisers of our great
cities to consider whether they cannot
advance religion as we'll as morality
by pointing out that tie commandment
| Thou shalt not steal" is openly and
notoriously violated in the stock market
and in the grain pit bv those who pro-
| fess to believe in the Bible and to have
respect for its teachings"