Year: 1869

Effect Of the Wall Street Rumpus--Ir the
Trouble Overs


Fifty millions are gone. They were not
millions in coin nor millions in ordinarily tan
gble property; but they were nevertheless
just as certainly the recognized millions In
virtue of which men were rich that without
assumed existence of which bankers and
brokers borrowed and lent and bought
and sold, that without them could
have done none of these. Although no
money has been melted down or burned up
or blown away, though all tangible property is
quite intact, yet this large value has been
destroyed and is an actual loss from the wealth
of this community and the active force Of Wall
street. Any man who owned one hundred
thousand dollars in railroad shares had his for
tune reduced at least twenty-five per cent.
Garry this simple statement through the
number of those whose wealth is 30 invested
and it will be seen to rise to q very great
figure On railroad shares and similar values
the ''shrinkage" in this city due to the late
rumpus is not less than fifty millions. 1t is
true that this loss is in one way nominal only.
The holder has just as many shares,
the road is not injured; its earnings are
equally sure. But it must be remem-
bered that for Wall street the nomi-
nal is the real. How large part
the nominal plays is seen in the fact that with
only twenty millions in gold present sixty
millions were owned. The owners of the gold
owned it three times over, and perhaps never
saw half eagle of it. 1t is also quite true
that shares will mostly recover the value they
had before; but the question for Wall street is
as to where men stand to-day for he whose
transactions were based on his capital as it
stood at the price Of his shares, with one-quar-
ter less, finds himself in a very tight place and
cannot hold on. He must sell, and the return
ing value goes to another he most likely
does not save himself even by selling then
another who leaned on him falls also, and so
it goes.


Although the community, taking the long
run, loses nothing yet in the meantime,
between the fall in prices and the gradual
recovery, this large sum is abstracted from the
trading capital Of the street, to its great
embarrassment, and the problem of the hour
is how the street will get over the many diff
culties this must inevitably cause. This reduc-
ton in the amount Of capital is the fact that
the rumpus of the gold market has left
behind it. Hitherto we have not seen
its full effect, because the ordinary struggle of
the street has been interrupted by different
devices. The injunction-that well-worn piece
of legal machinery-has been brought to bear
on the case. An injunction is writ that
courts must grant wherever man is willing
to swear that his property will receive rrepa-
rable damage unless certain persons are pre-
vented committing an act they contemplate
and nothing can be easier for house that
wishes to stand still for few days, and, above
all that wishes tn he left alone than to he
one take an oath on which shall issue writ
forbdding it to carry on its legitimate business.
Here the bankers present themselves to the
world in position that saves their credit
handsomely and gives time. They do not
refuse answers to questions, nor decline pay
ments due, nor withhold themselves from the
market. Nothing Of the sort; but legal
order closes their mouths and arrests their
willing hands. He who has been enjoined in
this crisis can hardly be above suspicion in the
future. Besides the cloud that the Injunction
has conveniently spread over many transac-
tions, there has also been o general uncer-
tainty as to the results of the melee due to a
disposition on all sides not to "push things"


But the uncertainty, due to whatever cause,
must have limit. Injunctions even will not
hold forever, and the good will of creditors
becomes less and less by the hour as they be-
come more and more sure that they can receive
no damage from any disclosure. AS the light
begins to fall pretty clearly on Wall street now,
people see less to be pleased with than their
sanguine fancies pictured several days ago.
It begins to be apparent that the stream of
disaster has not spent its force. The tumbling
debris had formed an accidental dam, and as
no man knew how he stood himself no one
stirred timber of the fabric, while some
built it stronger with injunctions. In the quiet
pools below it others congratulated themselves
that they had not been swept away, and the
people thought ''the worst was over" Nay,
in this lull, this holiday Of ruin, some abso-
lutely rotten firms have been actively dealing
to make what they might before the barrier
gave way. There are more failures, and when
all statements are forced out there will be
more still; for the abstraction of fifty millions
by shrinkageis not consistent with the financial
equilibrium.


Thn Eel