Semi-weekly herald., 1913-07-31
EDUCATION HAS PUT THE
QUIETUS ON WALL STREET


NEW YORK, July 2s.-Wall stree.
is sick-sick unto death. The stock
exchange IS suffering from a pro-
nounced attack of incurable anaemia,
and the contributing cause, according
to the diagnosis of old timers, is edu-
cation. The public is wise to Wall
stree. There's the rub. The stock
exchange is still at Broad and Wall,
and trading opens at a. m. and stops
at 3 p. m. Railroad, steamships and
manufacturing shares and bonds daily
change hands as in former times, but
the public does not care. Prices fluc-
tuate and the ticker whirs out it's song
of profit and loss as of yore, but the
public is not interested Desperate
bear faiting and equally desperate bull
fighting occurs on the street as in
former times but the public takes no
| interest in the game. The public has
learned that the doings of Wall street
| should not concern the public. The
lamb has learned at last that the path
of speculation leads to the shambles
sooner or later. The money made Oil
| Wall street is made by the holders of
stocks and bonds, not by the gamblers.
| 1t dawneo on the lamb some time ago
that every dollar made by anybody
on the street is lost by some other
body, ana that the public was always
that some other body.
Education is responsible for the
present stagnation of Wall street.
Congressional investigation of the
money trust, the adverse railroad leg
ialsucn and lot of other things are
bien ed by some for the decline Of the
street, but the fact is that the public
through the newspapers and maga-
zines, saw what made Wall streets
wheels go around, learned what made
Wall street tick, and the public i'm
mediately lost interest. There is moth
ing so deadly to pastime or amuse-
ment such as Wall street furnished as
a thorough understanding of it.
"And you wouldn't know the old
place now" might be sung with unc-
ton by the brokers today. The "crook-
ed little street with a cemetery at one
end and the river at the other" hardly
knows itself in these troublous times.
An old-time broker who has made and
lost several fortunes in the street was
heard to hum thusly:
81 feel like one who treads alone
some banquet hall deserted, whose
lights are fled, and garlands dead and
all but him departed" Some of the
wise ones profess to believe that Wall
street will never come back" while
others just as well versed in its ways,
predict confidently that the present
lethargy, the wide berth that the pub
lie is just now giving the exchange and
bucket shops is just temporary
thing, soon to pass away. These point
hopefully to 19O7-OS as an example of
temporary depression. But there is
no analogy. In those years there was
paric. Today there is nothing of the
kind. Wall street is doing healthy,
legitimate business. Shares are chang
ing hands normally. What is missing
is speculation. The public is not play
ing the game, not because of hard
times, but because the public, knowing
it is bound to lose at the game, docs
not want to.
| Five hundred Wall street clerks
have been discharged, and all the sur
vivors have stood for huge cuts in
salary. Telegraph operators who used
to enjoy tips" on good things" and
make "a nice piece of change" no
longer receive these favors. Messen-
ger boys who used to get SIS bills gra-
tuitously, now jump at dimes. The
brokers gather around the ticker with
semblance of their old vigor, but
they are watching the baseball scores.
Floor men spend their time figuring
the cost of summer vacations.
A singing evangelist the other day
tried to start street meeting near
the Curb market and was told curtly
to "go and save 'em up in Central
park" A newly discovered tenor who
says he outsings Caruso, went down
to the street the other day to sing in
an effort to attract a rich backer, a
thing not uncommon in the old days,
and was promptly arrested.
Whatever the answer, things are not
the same down in the financial district
and there are those who believe that
Wall street as an institution will soon
become a tradition.