The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-02-01
Street REMORSEfUL
PURGED BY FIRE FROM WITHOUT
AND WITHIN, SAYS WAL
TER WELLMAN.

'sss ~ - We -
TER WELLMAN.
Promises to Be Good, at Least for a
Time Catalogue Of Wrongdoings
Which Made Nation scourge New
York With Fury-Money Drained to
Gambling Den.
Chicago, Jan. 27.-Wiring from New
York to the Record-Herald, Walter
Wellman says in part:
Publication by fire, shrinkage by
elimination Of dross, regeneration in
remorse this is fair characterize
ton Of the new, the revolutionized, the
minimized Wall street.
The fire has come partly from with
out, in the form of public opinion, in
the moral uplift which the whole coun-
try has felt under the leadership of
President Roosevelt. It has come from
within, in the form of discovery of
cancers and tumors, which must be
cut out if the patient is to live. How
much of the credit for the new and
better order of things is due to one
influence, how much to the other, /
am unable to say.
Adversely Brings Repentance.
Probably Wall street would never
have realized how bad it was and how
much in need of surgeon if the coun-
try had not first made the discovery.
Probably also, Wall street would have
paid little heed to the country's con-
demnatory warning, but for the dis
covery that New York was losing
ground, losing confidence, losing influ-
ence. losing power, losing money,
through it's own wrong doing. Vice is
never repentant in prosperity.
Certain it is that last autumn's crisis
precipitated and effected the revolu-
ton. When New York began to look
into itself, it was appalled, at what it
found. AS soon as introspection began,
remorse and penitence and good reso-
lutions sprang into life.
Morgan Masters the. Storm.
It was lucky thing for New York,
for the whole country, that there was
a John Pierpont Morgan here the day
the storm came. What he did and
how he did it all the world knows in
part. The full story has never been
written. In short, to use the language
of one who was an actor in the drama,
Mr.. Morgan showed himself to be one
of the few really great men this coun-
try has produced. There was not an
other man in the country who could
have men the crisis as he met it. He
took a crowd Of panic-stricken, selfish,
financiers by the throat,
shook them as terrier shakes rat,
banged their heads together and made
them be decent by the sheer force Of
his will and his commanding person
atty.
When a man like Morgan, with his
insight, his knowledge. his habit of
facing the truth, looks over the recent
history of New York financiering, it
is not surprising he feels great dis
gust at it.
Long Catalogue of Crime.
The era of promotion, wind and wa
ter stocks, victimizing of an innocent
investing public.
The insurance scandals, which have
driven some men to death, others into
exile, still more into oblivion.
The traction scandals, which have
pulled down from his pedestal and de-
classed the once powerful Thomas F.
Ryan.
The trust company scandals, trust
companies doing all the dirty work of
the town, managed by incompetents or
sharks.
The railroad scandals. like Alton,
which have put even the great Harri-
man in class by himself, and that
The banking scandals, piungerS ana
gamblers using other peoples money,
known to all the leaders, but suffered
to 60 on till the storm came, when they
should have been eliminated long be-
fore.
Scandals which have led public
official to declare within a
fortnight that there are score Of
bank directors in this town he could
put in Jail II he wished.
The cotton scandal, which has dis
gusted the South, with its unjust spec
ulative classifications.
Even Rockefeller Repents.
The railway and Standard Oil rebate
scandal, upon which President Roose-
welt and Judge Lands have put quiz
etus and brought even John d. Rookie
teller to the stool Of repentance.
The greatest scandal OF all, the
drain-bag Of money from all over the
United States to carry on the great
gambling game known as the Stock