Evening star., 1933-05-26
MORGAN ACCUSED
OF SHELL GAME
White Likens Wall Street
Practices to Sharpers
at Country Fairs.
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
Special Dispatch to the Star
EMPORIA. Kans.. Nay 25.-It has
been q generation since the American
people have seen the bugs under the
chip of high finance scurrying to hiding
as they are hurrying today.
In the days of the first Roosevelt,
when Tom Lawson. Lincoln Steffens,
Ida Tarbell. the Pujo Committee and
Upton Sinclair were attaching the
established order of finance, something
like the same spectacle was revealed
Ia and around Wall street. Broad street
and lower Broadway that men see
today.
The fathers of this generation backed
up Theodore Roosevelt when he coined
the term predatory wealth" or ''ag-
grandized wealth." when he denounced
the unholy alliance between big bsBi-
ness and high politics. In the end the
public sentiment which he made was
afterward crystallized in the Federal Re-
serve act, the Federal Trade Commits
sion. the Tariff Commission. the postal
savings bank, and. finally, the income
inheritance tax laws. These were guns
in the ribs of big business. They were
supposed to keep big business within
the law.
Time weakened the pressure Of the
gun.
Cunning in Wall Street.
Now comes the administration Of this
second Roosevelt. He has gone into the
jungies Of Wall street cunning for pred
atory game. Some Of the men who five
YpArx thA n
inanciers of WaIl Street and the down.
town district are now fighting for their
good names before courts, are under in
dietments or before committees Of Con-
gress. Twenty-Five years ago political
bribery was called "a conventional
crime" Today. similarly, the practices
which were vinked at i've years ago as
smart practices, are now bringing men
to the bar Of justice and hailing them
into the court of public opinion.
The American people, of course, try
to simplify the verdicts of these courts,
to reduce the whole matter to an un-
derstandable simile. Hence, one finds
out on the court house steps of America,
in rotary clubs, at the mems Bible
classes and in the cigar stores that the
short and simple language Of the Door
Is being hurled at those who stand &C
cused America calls them thimble-
riggers.
So let US consider thimble- -rieRers. At
the country fair outside Of the gates, be-
yond the jurisdiction of the oficials of
the fair, frequently one finds 4 sharper.
duping the crowd while his come-on
men, his accomplices who know the
game. bet occasionally, win highly and
SO lure the suckers.
Two Games Used.
Two games are used by the sharper.
The games at the fair grounds are
called three-card monte and the shell
game. In three-card monte the sucker
bets that he knows where the ace Is.
In the shell game, the sucker bets that
he knows under which shell the little
pea is hidden, after the dealer has
made his passes.
In Wall Street. the decoy ducks are
the insiders, those to whom the dealer
tips the wing. The insiders are allotted
blocks of stock by great bond houses A.
inside prices, the insiders make money
on the rise of these stocks. Their
profits lure the suckers to buy the
stocks.
It Is odd to see AMONG the list Of
the men helping to promote the big
game down in Wall Street the names Of
men eminent in political life-the big
bell wethers Of Wall Street, the men
to whom the promoter tips his wink,
and who drain off the profits which
sales to the suckers make.
The analogy is not, OF course, perfect.
but it is fine enough for the boys In
the country. The boys who patronize
the games just outside Of the legitimate
investment field are beginning to see
how they were duped by accompltces
of the dealers. The gambling public b
beginning to realize that much of the
purely speculative game, much of the
trading in inflated stocks and bonds, is
promoted by this understanding between
the promoter and his confidantes who
N the low parlance Of the country
talr are known as the come-on men.
Truth Inescapable.
The figure Is not . pleasant one.
Neither Is the spectacle highly elevat-
ing. But the truth of the analogy Is
nescapable.
This President Roosevelt IS massing
behind him public sentiment by reason
of the revelations appearing in his ad-
He may build up body
of opinion which may create legislation
that will go forward probably further
ehdAk tAiC lc6bAhbAoh WCnt WnICu NdS
passed In Theodore Roo6eveltS day.
The revolutionary measures now BE-
lore Congress putting unheard-of powers
nto the hands Of the administra ton
will have popular backing, not SO much
IN the merits Of the measures Is be-
,ause of the confidence Of the people In
he President. Party lines are being
wiped out. There Is no opposition party.
Neither is there q majority party. Con-
,ress is the mob. The President Is the
Zero.
How long this situation will last no
me knows. But II President Roosevelt
an keep throwing fat victims sizzling
N the fire to make such . blaze Is has
'een created recently, President Roose-
'elt soon will find himself entrusted
With more real power than lies In the
lands OF any other man on the planet.
VIII Have Great Power.
Moreover. this power will be thrust
pon him. He will have to seize nothing
lie will have to avoid power rather than
o seek 1t.
And there Is the strange part Of the
evolution-that the people are piling
over upon the White House steps with
ut much coaxing and apparently with
ut much thought Of consequences. Ger
ainly the legislation that has come In
ne last three months has not been
lought out by the populace. It was
OF in the major promises of either
arty. It has come out of the intel
,ctual yearning of the Phi. DIS, not out
the heart Of democracy, though 1t
as the approval of democracy.
1t Is new process In q new world.
ne marvels chiefly that the game has
one so far and SO long as it has. When
stops, when the fat no longer SINNERS
a the pyre, when the bonflne subsidies,
hat then will happen to the psople7
In the meantime, If the turmoil tn
,e courts and in the congressional
,y,ny, y,,iftooc cf1 -.