Evening star., 1932-07-24
BY C. NORMAN STABLER.

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- TATEMENTS that Wall Street
pirates made the billions that
have been lost by investors dur
- ing the last three years, that all
stock brokers should be in jail,
that speculation in securities is not
legitimate undertaking and. in short,
that Wall Street Is the source OF all
evil are heard on every hand and ap-
parently are accepted as gospel without
a challenge. 1t seems especially easy for
political orators to make such state
ments and to convince. among others,
the majority of the 100000 OF small
speculators who had accounts in brok-
erage Offices in 1929 and helped pile up
the tower of paper profits which never
existed in fact
Fixing the blame after a debacle is
a pastime that does little harm, but
usually accompNshes less goOd-Whlch
probably accounts for the fact that
foolish statements like the ABOVE go
unchallenged. The blame that may
Justly be leveled at Wall Street is its
buckling under to fear about the future
and its failure to produce a leader or
group with the necessary magnetism
and power to whip the faint of heart
into line.
There are many of the faint OF heart
in Wall Street. and they are subject to
the same emotions as others throughout
the country, for most Of them have lost
their paper fortunes along with the
Is, 900 0O0 Being in Wall Street did
not save them, and they are just as
anxious as the rest of us for the birth
of a Moses with the necessary fore
sight to point the correct course.
Blaming the financial machinery for
unjustified The head Of a local real
estate association, listening to the pop
ular clamor, said recently that the de-
bacle was due to pool boosting and
unloading and short selling aided by
banking credit imitation.
Pool Broke 1873 Panic.
1t was a major pool operation, en-
break the panic of 1873. and thus
contributing TO the recovery which fol-
lowed that period. The fears of in
vestors and purchasers of goods helped
prolong that depression, just as they
are helping the forces of evil today.
There are few individuals living who
were active in the Street at that time
and now but on the authority of one of
the key men of the 1873 era I have
learned that it was the operation of
that much maligned speculative vehicle,
the pool. which started rolling back the
clouds of dependency of that time
washington E. COnnor is my inform
ant. He was on the center of the 1873
stage as the partner of Jay Gould. He
was Gould's principal broker and han
died his operations on the floor of the
Stock Exchange. He parceled out
(,oII16'S hI1SinpcS IN other hroIarc and
also handled much of the trading of
Russell Sage. Needless to say, mis- pres
ent operations are not as gigantic and
he is no longer member of the eX-
change, but he still conducts consider
able trading from brokers' offices. 1t
is his statement that a pool operated
by william H. Vanderlip, Charles j.
Osborn, Frank Work and about 10 or
IL of their associates started the recov-
cry in Wall street, which later became
the business recovery Of the Nation.
Mr.. Connor thinks that the method
used by Gould in amassing the first part
Of his tremendous fortune could be ap-
plied on a broader scale today for the
iirect benefit of corporations instead of
sor any one or half dozen individuals.
Gould made his first killing" by buying
railroad bonds at their deprecated
prices of about % cents on the dollar.
Mr.. Connor would have the railroads
buy their own bonds at the present de-
preciated prices, thus permanently re-
ducing their fixed charges, improving
their credit and taking advantage of a
situation which in 1873 was used for
individual profits
applicable only to railroads. Bankers