Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-05

million that 1t had been suggested, ne said, that the commandment be amend i ed to read Thou shalt not steal on small scale.'
 Larceny through operation of the law was possible, he said, if the laws were unjust or permitted an unfair ad- vantage to any class of citizens. Wa i tered stocks and fictitious capitaliza- tions were placed by the speaker as among the forms of polite larceny. Plays Stock Exchange.
 After stating that inequality in taxa tlon and private monopoly are merely forms of larceny MT. Bryan remarked:
 And now, at the risk of being ac- cused of sacrilege, 1 venture to intro duce to the Stock Exchange the com mandment which we have been consid- ering am aware that here in New York the Stock Exchange is regarded with a certain amount of veneration and that many who vehemently de- nounce gambling in back room where winnings and losses are small remain strangely silent in the presence of the enormous games that are played upon the stock market often with loaded ] dice.
 Gambling is one of the worst of vices, and gambling in stocks and in farm products is the most destructive form in which the vice appears. Meas ured 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 1 Monte Carlo, and measured by the in- fiuence upon those who do not gamble 1 the evils of Monte Carlo are insignif- cant when compared with the evils of New York's commercial gambling ] houses.
 Faain's School outdone.
 "The New York Stock Exchange has ! graduated more embezzlers than Fa- | gins school did thieves. When a group of men gamble at a wheel of fortune or at a game of cards, the in- jury done is confined to them and to those immediately dependent upon them, but those who gamble in the grain pit or on the floor of the Stock Exchange deal in commodities or se- curities in which sO,OOO.OOO people are directly or indirectly interested. Farm products are juggled 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 de- mand ought to regulate prices. but these laws are entirely suspended ; when a few men can by their bets add millions of dollars to the market value of one product or take millions of dol lars from the value of another prod uct. After a crusade which eOnvulsed a state and at last impressed the thought of the nation we got rid of the Louisiana lottery. and then we con Rratulated ourselves upon our virtue. The men in charge of the lottery never \ did A tithe of the harm that the grain ! gamblers and the stock gamblers of New York do every day. nor did they ever exercise anything like the cor | rupting influences over politics. I Common, Vulgar eaublins.- 1t has been asserted without denial that @ per cent of the New York pur- chaSes and sales Of stock and of pro duce are merely bets upon the market value. with 10 intention on the part of the vender tO deliver or on the part Of the purchaser 10 receive. This Is not
 s.s1 a.ls-.. s-te. if is 10
 Ef.ecslIation. 1t is common. vulgar gam bling
 If time permitted. would call at
 tensIoa to the adulterztipn of fooC
 whieh sometimes involves a violation
 Of the commandment against kIiiint
 as vel as the commandment aEzinss steSIinz.
 The swollen fortunes against which the president justly invelghs alnos