Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-03
GAMBLING IN STOCKS
Sentiment for Its Prohibition
Growing.
FAVOR PRESIDENTS PLAN
To Forbid Use of Mails and Wires
for Such Purposes.
MARGIN LIKE LOTTERY TICKET
Speculation Conceded to Be Cause of
Crime, Suicides, Insanity
and Misery.
MARGIN LIKE LOTTERY TICKET
BY WILLIAM z. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald

Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
NEW YORK. February . 1908.
Everybody except the brokers who get
rich upon commissions for doing the bust
ness commends that part of the Presl-
dents recent message which refers to the
suppression of gambling in stocks. bonds
and futures. Everybody agrees. except
the gentlemen aforesaid and the gamblers
themselves. that ii would be good thing
to pass a law, he suggests, forblddlng
them to use the mails and the telegraph
and telephone wires for such purposes,
just as the lottery companies are pro-
hibited from using them.
There is very little dinerence between
lottery ticket and memorandum record
ing the purchase of few shares of stocks
or few bales of cotton or a few bushels
of grain on maIgains- There is very little
difference between stock gambling and
faro or keno or roulette. II all depends
upon the size of the stake. whether we
regard 1t as right or wrong. The news
boy who plays game of craps i'll dark
corner of the alley is engaged in busi-
ness quite as honorable and quite as re-
spectacle as the man who buys S20OOO,
$4,000 or $4,000 worth of stocks or grain
or cotton on margins and then sells as
soon as he sees an advance OF few
points in value We are told that lone
murder makes villain. hundreds hero.
etc. and the size of the transaction
makes it right or wrong in the opinion
of gentlemen who are in the business.
Margin Gambling Causes Crime.
1t will be conceded that the great ma
jority of defalcations. entertainments and
other breaches of trust are due to gam
bling on margins. and that it is the cause
of untold misery and wretchedneSs, in
sanity and Of many suicides. / gave a
long series of facts on this subject in a
recent letter, and the opinions of several
presidents of security companies and
others whose business makes them Ia
miliar with such matters. l also gave
the statistics of death by suicide and
heart disease that followed the recent
panic. Volumes could be written against
stock and grain gambling, but not one
word can be said in it's favor
Hence no one should object to the Pres
ident's position when he says: In connec-
ton with measures to restrain stock
watering and overcapitalization, there
should be measures tanen to prevent at
least the grosser forms of gambling in
securities and commodities, such as max
ing large sales of what men do not pos
seSs, and cornering the market. Legiti-
mate purchases of commodities and OF
stocks and securities for Investment have
no connection whatever with purchases of
stocks or other securities or commodities
Il margin for speculative or gambling |
purposes There is no moral differenc |
between gambling at cards or in lotteries |
on the race track and gambling on the |
stock market. .t
Eve should study both the successes |
and the failures of foreign legislators |
who. notably in Germany, have worked |
along this line so as not to do anything |
harmful Moreover, there is a special |
difficulty in dealing with this matter by
the federal government in federal re-
public like ours. But If it is possible to
devise a way 10 deal with 1t the effort
should be made. even. if only in a eau
tious and tentative way. 1t would seem
that the federal government could at
least act by forbidding the use of the
mails, telegraph and telephone wires for
mere gambling in stocks and futures Just
as it does in lottery transactions