The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1910-02-07
THE LEGITIMATE SIDE.
Henry cIews States That Stock Specu-
Iation is Not Gambling.

Iation is Not Gambling.
In an address recently given upon
tbe subject Half Century i'm Wall
street" Henry Clewes the well known
authority made reference to the spec
tacular rises and falls in the big mar
ket operations during the last fifty
wears. He refused, Notwithstanding
these examples, to classify stock spec
ulatlon as conducted by the New
York Stock Exchange as gambling.
ON this point Mr.. Clews said:
"In reply to many mistaken critics
regarding wall Street, / will here say
that speculation i'm stocks, as con-
ducted through Stock Exchange bro
kers is no more gambling than specu-
lation i'm real estate or ordinary mer-
chandlse.
"Ar trade Is more or less specu-
latiyc. because il involves risks. If 1t
did not involve risk there would not
be So many merchantile failures as
there are every year; yet no one calls
trade gambling.
every time n merchant buys a line
OF goods he makes venture, not
knowing whether they will rise or
deprcciate in market value on his
hands.
Gle buys also on credit, just as he
gives credit to his customers and
what is the difference In principle be-
tween this form of credit and the
credit stock broker gives his Gus
toners who pay 10 per cent. on the
par value of their purchases while the
broker provides the balance and holds
the stock as security?
"This is the margin, which rs Gre
dit in the account of each of them;
and I call it credit instead of a
margin. which is n better word for
brokers to use.
business cannot be conducted with
out making contracts entering into the
future. and that is speculation. The
builder who contracts to build You a
home is SPECTATOR; the manufac-
turer who agrees to deliver a thou
sand cases of cotton goods sixty days
hence is dealing in futures. and al
operations extending into the future
are unavoidably of a speculative char
acter Even marriage is often called
lottery. 1t is quite impossible and
thoroughly stupid to try to eliminate
speculation, for it is an essential ele'
ment in all business transactions ex-
cept those for cash. If business were
reduced to the cash basis, IL would
soon become injuriously restricted ant
more exposed to corners and violen
fluctuations than ever.
Speculation, when confined 10 rea'
sonable limits, is beneficial. II is the
natural balance wheel of commerce ant
finance. BY its means and through
the conflict between buyers and sellers
real values are established by simpler
ana more reliable means than by any
other known methods.
mo government investigation will
ever ascertain what real values are s,
well as is now done by the higgling an,
bargaining between buyers and sellers
which is alike the moving spirit o
commerce and the arbiter of values OF
all Stock Exchanges the world over
Speculation is liable to be carried L
excess and abuses in speculative meth
DDS undoubtedly exist but these arr
better corrected by a strong and ele
waited public opinion and strict stool
exchange rules than through any le
gal measures based upon political clap
trap.
Because few individuals pla!
splt to harmful excess would any san,
person suppress so wholesome
sport? Yet that is precisely the polio!
OF many OF the reformers of the pres
ent day. Too frequently these reform
movements SAVIOR OF ignorance of tn
lacts OF the case. Their purpose 4
frequently admirable; but the countr!
sadly needs more sanity In their ap
plication.
ON the Cotton. Produce and Coffe,
Exchanges and the Chicago Board o
trade nearly all transactions are II
lutures-and these are "A boon to cot
ION and grain growers and coffee i'm
por'ers, who through them. can sci
their growing crops and Importation
months before they actually posses
ana are ready To deliver them. so Il
"uVance making sure OF the prices the.
WIN get for their farm products an
importations.
Black sheep and exceptional wrong
doing should not be help up as ex
anp'es OF all and everything In wal
street. and because interruptions me-
s'he'imes embezzle in order to ge
money to speculate with. Wall stree
should not be held responsible for thei
.,''ne' any more than river should b
blamed for a mans suicide because n