The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-12-06
TWILIGHT DESCENDS
ON STOCK EXCHANGE
Gone Are Days When Gould,
rriman and keene
leeced Lambs.
BROKERS' IN DUMPS
million Share Day" Dwind-
les Into S1.40 Pay For
Days Work.
BROKERS IN DUMPS

The twilight of Wall Street, the dar-
Ing and spectacular plunger gone for
ever, the public apathetic toward
stock speculation, the passing Of Of
one of the most picturesque elements
In our public life-these are some of
the conclusions drawn from the great
dulIness on the New York Stock Elk
change, the failures of brokers to
make what they consider a living, the
dry rot.
Certain it Is that we have no Jay
Gould-or an E. II. Harrimer. or a
Keene, or a Gates, or even a David
Lamar. The days of the big market
manipulation have apparently passed,
These men are dead and there are
none to take their places. If as big
things are put over" as in the old
days, they are done now in secret,
with the aid of much law and lawyers,
through numerous agents and multi
tudinous blinds and devices.
TT was not so in the olden days"
Way back in the Black Friday era,
Jay Gould or Jim Fiske wouldn't hest
tate at all to appear in the public
share mart and flay the opposing
crowd of either bulls or bears with the
utmost freedom Everybody knew
what they were about and nobody
thought OF complaining in the sense of
considering their faults as of a pub
lie character
"MilIIon Share Day"
Later came the great speculative
eras of our national life, when a mil
lion share day" was considered moth
ing. when doctors and lawyers and
merchants gambled in stocks from
every hamlet, when the little specu-
Iators were myraid and the big specu-
lators were fierce, If slightly more eau
tious than in the Seventies.
Hartman, flinging railroads into
the gambling pit, John w. Gates and
other men Of his type leading specu-
lative campaigns which Melted them
tens Of millions, foxy old James r.
Keene, engineering pools-for many
years the American people stood for
them and simply laughed.
Then the great outcries began.
They've never led the actual govern
mental reformation or abolition Of the
Stock Exchange, but they seem to
have put it almost hors de combat
simply by the force Of public opinion.
Lambs Protect Wool.
"Nobody's buying" the brokers
cry.
I'VE never sell anybody from up
town." complain the hungry eyed
ones. meaning that the merchants
who accumulate fortunes no longer
follow the custom Of retiring. seat
ing themselves next the ticker, and
proceeding gradually to turn their
hard earned wealth over to the men
IF stocks and bonds. The men from
n
it is the brokers' game-not theirs.
1t is related that a prominent brok-
er came on the floor the day before
election and said to a group Of friends:
Boys, we all ought to go up to the
Sixth District and vote for Bill Sulzer
tomorrow-he's the only man from up
town who's bought anything from us
for two years"
There was laughter at this, but OF
mirthless variety. The stagnation in
stocks is no joke to the brokers. They
can stand it for stocks to go up and
thew can stand it for them to go
down. but when they stand still-good
night.
The Exchange has recently had the
worst days business since 1888, TWEEN
ty-five years ago. Only $4,000 shares
of stock and S1S bonds changed hands.
There are 100 members of the Elk
change. 1t was figured that each Of
them would have $40 for his days
work If the commissions were divided
equally. A dollar and forty cents, not
the wages Of a man who digs ditch
in these days-and for brokers whose
business expenses might run to 500
day each. No wonder there are 'un-
examinations" and a few failures. No
wonder that staid old firms settle all
their accounts and quietly go out OF
existence.