Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-06-20
ACT AND GOSSIP
IN MONEY MARTS
This Particular Letter Being a
Discussion of the Value of
Travel.
BY 3. c. EoRREs

NEW YORK, June 20-It does us good
TO rub against our fellows. We are all
apt to slide into a rut and stay there,
narrowed in vision and fossilized in ideas.
A wise man once said that the best rec
reation was change of work-meaning
to turn temporarily from one subject to
another. He might have added that
change of scene a change of surround
lngs and an exchange of views with other
minds would form an excellent substitute.
Nothing is more refreshing, more broad
enlng. more stimulating and more pro-
ductive of wisdom and federation. 1t
teaches us that our own little groove is
not all-important; that other people have
rows to hoe and problems to solve, and
that what looms SO tremendously large to
US may not after all, affect the fate of
nations.
Ihls lesson has been taught me afresh
by weeks tour in this country and Can
ada, during which the thoughts and con-
Germs of many minds were impaired to
me. We in New York fancy that we are
overwhelmingly important Some who
breathe the stock exchange air imagine
mat the eyes of the whole country are
daily and hourly glued to the tape that
curls from the floor of that institution.
~ Two point rise in Reading or a three
point drop in Steel is weighted with ire
mendous ignitcance-whereas it may re-
meet only the fleeting whim of a ten
thousand share operator
one thing | learned, not without some
regret, is that Wall Street is grossly mis-
understood and unduly m8ligned Its
proper functions are not grasped but it's
toollsh capers are well known and APP
parenty interpreted as representing the
real work of our great financial mart-by
far the greatest mart on this side Of the
Atlantic Stock exchange houses have
been bewaing the absence of "pubic
trading. May not this falling off in
stock speculation prove of far-reaching
benefit to the nation? No man is so sore
against Wall Street and all that the
phrase implies as the unfortunate fellow
who has been induced to speculate on
margin and has lost every cent He is
an enemy of finance for life-even
though the fault was nine-t enths or Who'll
~ his own.
The man who merely invests in a legit-
innate stock or bond and earns a steady
return on his money is not apt to rail
against capital and capitalists without
rhyme or reason. Happily, the United
states is today rearing more investors
and fewer spectators. This is of meal
culable value alike from a financial, a
political and an economic point of view.
We have been tod from influential
sources of late that the people are net
bothering their heads over politics This
I is not true Within the last ten days |
, haEe talked with perhaps two hundred
people Of all classes. from agricultural Ia
borers railroad porters and walters to
the heads of the principal railroads, banks
and industrial enterprises in the United
States and Canada. but in no stratum of
society did / find Indifference to politics.
True, some of those higher up-including
George NJ. Reynolds, president of Chi
Cages largest national bank. and Sir Ed
mund Walker, head of Canadian bank
having some 1870 branches explained that
the people were ready to go ahead ire
spective OF politics, vet on closer ques-
tioning they admitted that quite possibly
prosperity would not develop a goodly
pace until the political thunderstorms
abated. l had been told so often by New
York fnanciers that politics did not mat
Ter a button that l had almost come to
believe it, Now | know from first hand
that the people do still pay attention to
political disturbances and restrain their
energies until they can better diagnose
the outlook.
Farmers are losing heart over the treat
nent they receive from those who buy
certain of their products, The beef trust
is of course, sharply hated-one did not
have to leave New York to find that out
But there are equally bitter complaints
from up state over the way vegetables.
fruits and other commodities are handled.
That some sort of ring" exists among
commission houses is firmly believed At
+,,J
consignees have not been efficacious.
New York is urged to establish markets
that viii be markets In one city / saw
many housewives going home with bas-
kets fun of fresh vegetables and fruits
which had been bought off farmers
wagons. The townspeople have first
choice, and the dealers are not allowed
to buy a dollars worth until all private
demands have been satisfied
VIII it console New York any TO learn
thar in Canadian cities the outcry about
the high cost of living Is quite as loud
as here? And to agggavate matters there
rents have been artu,cialI5 inflated b. an
cverdone boom in real estate boom
that will burst before long with disas-
trous consequences Gambling in real es-
tate in Canada is more fragrant than
gambling in stocks in Wall Street OF
,riilroed congestion liz Canada, of upstate
optimism on business prospects and other
matters exercising attention elsewhere
r.,oro will ne said later