The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-03-12
Today
Another Bottom Falls Out.
Chance to Break Your Neck.
Good Wages, or Dividends.
Can't Have Both.
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE
- HTASHkJABL
Copyright. 1s21.)

ask, "How many bottoms has the
market?" The bottom dropped
out once more yesterday. Some
stocks sold lower than ever be-
fore in all their lives.
Cotton, Of course, and wheat
dropped to keep the stocks COM
pany. There are wonderful bar
gains in the stock market now
also wonderful opportunities to
break your neck financially.
Not long ago an enthusiastic
friend who knows" the market
burst in with, I'm giving you the
best chance you'll ever have to
make fortune. Buy-every share
you can carry" 1t was selling
then at a hundred and ten dollars
a share. The promoters had capi-
talized an idea to the tune Of a
million shares, and were selling
that idea to the public for a hun
dred and ten million dollars.
Yesterday the stock was selling
below fifty; the idea" had dwin-
died. The enthusiastic friend was
advised to go back and sell his
wonderful tip short" but, un-
fortunately for him, didn't do it.
An experienced man in Wall
Street feels as though he were In
Sinbad's Valley Of Diamonds, with
rattlesnake head next to every
diamond. 1t is hard to pick up
anything without being stung. Yet
what a pity to let the wonderful
bargains in diamonds lie unpicked.
The immediate cause of this
baby panic is realization by private
owners of railroads that they are
not able to manage them or finance
them.
If they had been wise, they
would have taken the advice of a
Chicago man, one of the biggest
owners of railroad stocks in the
United States. He said to his
friends repeatedly, "For Gods
sake, let the Government KEEP
the railroads! If you don't, two
thirds Of them will be in bank
ruptcy." He was prophet.
The railroad question comes
down to this:
Shall railroads be run to con-
tinue paying dividends on watered
stock-stock representing no money
invested? And shall wages of
men be cut to make dividend-pay-
ing possible?
OR, shall workmen receive the
good wages that war brought
them, and to do this shall water
be squeezed out of the railroad
stocks?
You might say off-hand, that
human beings-their food, lodg-
ing, comfort-are more important
than dividends, and that undoubt-
edly the water will be squeezed out
Of railroads and the men will con-
tinue to get good wages.
But that is NOT what is going
to happen. The comfort of work
ing men, good food, good clothes,
good houses for their children
ARE undoubtedly more important
than dividends on watered stock,
in the opinion of the angels.
But those that collect dividends
on watered stock, the lawyers they
hire, the people they put in office,
are intelligent, concentrated, and
stick together. 1t is easy to name
a hundred of them, or four of them,
that have more power than any
five million workmen in the United
States.
Therefore, the water will NOT
be squeezed out .of the watered
stock. And the workmen's wages
will be cut to make continued div
idend-paying possible.
Will all that change some day?
Certainly, but some day is a long
way off.
Could there be any immediate
solution of the problem? There
could. II the Government would
take ownership of the railroads,
once for all, retaining able man.
ayers, paying them excellent sal
aries, discharging worthless hang
ers-on and grafters put in "for
family reasons" the railroad prob
lem could be solved.
The recent Government manage
ment amounted to this: 1t took
over the railroads temporarily.
Permanent public ownership was
feared by the owners.
The Government stupidity left in
charge the hired servants Of the
private owners. Those private
servants were instructed to make
Government management an alb
solute failure, and did all possible
to make it failure.
They encouraged men not to
work, padded payrolls.
They forgot that it was dan
perous to encourage men to move
slowly and do half days work
under Government management.