Year: 1872




we cannot avoid some misgivings that the
alities which have marked, and still mark,
this political campaign, may in these impend-
ing elections culminate in scenes of disgrace
ful brutalities. To all parties concerned,
therefore, III these elections, we would oom-
mend tho maintenance Of law and order Let
the people speak, let fair play prevail and ''let
us have peace.


Disturbances I'm tho Money ana Stock


NIarkcts-Tho General Financial Sit


uatton and Prospect.


The late disturbance in the money and stock
markets proved but temporary, though injuri
GUS to business for q time and disastrous to GER
tain firms and individuals. The excitement,
therefore, 1t may be said, is over. Still, there
Is no feeling of security, but q continual ap-
prehension of more squeezing" operations.
While there is sense of relief under the re-
action and comparative quiet that followed,
people naturally soy another such disturbance
may be caused at any time. 1t was seen on
that occasion, as well as on the famous Black
Friday and other such recurring commercial
events that a few men, with only q few mil
lions of capital to work upon, can, by skill
full combination and preparation, shake
the whole framework of business and
credit. The enormous transactions Of
| this city in the money and stock
markets. in the produce market and in COM
merce and trade generally, amounting
sometimes to over hundred millions of dol
lars day, are seriously affected, and at times
partially paralyzed, by two or three men
money or stocks. Yet the total sum used for
this purpose may not exceed three or four
millions and rarely amounts to eight or ten
millions-a sum very insignificant compared
with the vast trade and interests affected,
and the enormous capital held in New York.
Disastrous as these cornering operations have
proved they are, after all, as insubstantial as
the ''baseless fabric Of vision" Though
they cause violent fluctuations temporarily,
mercantile failures, high rate of interest
and demoralize foreign exchange million or
two Of gold poured out of the plethoric
United States Treasury can break the corner
and restore an equilibrium, and what does
million or two of gold amount to compared
with the enormous capital and daily business
transactions of New York? Yet what an ex-
traordinary anomaly it is in our financial
condition that such effects should bppro-
duced by apparently insignificant causes.


One cause of this anomalous state of things
so toll
capital Though the volume or ameunt of
capital here is very large it is kept so actively
employed that sudden and unusual strain
upon very small percentage of the whole
amount causes a disturbance. One per cent,
or even less, of the total amount involved in
business transactions or in the stock and
money markets, when either locked up or used
for making corner" may make O difference
Of three, four or more per cent in the values
Of other things, may send up the rate of in
terest enormously, may seriously check trade
operations, and may plunge number of fnan-
cial and commercial houses into bankruptcy
A pebble thrown into large body of water
will disturb every particle of the mass, though
in quantity it is relatively insignificant, and
our financial condition is similarly elastic and
sensitive. It is more or less the same with
capital, or that representation Of it which we
call money all over the world, and especially
in the great financial centres, such as New
York or London, and if the disturbance
be great and prolonged at the centre
the effect extends far and wide over
this country and even to other countries.
We are, however, from some cause, in more
abnormal condition and more subject to dis
turbances from comparatively slight causes
than are the business communities of other
countries, and this notwithstanding our vast
resources and power of recuperation. In Lon
don the Bank of England has considerable in
fuence in checking the schemes of spectators
and excessive trading and in regulating the
money market 1t does this by putting up or
down the rate of interest. By allowing such
action the government has not the DESIRE op-
portunity or pretext to interfere with the bust
ness or monetary transactions of the public,
and it never does except under very extraordi-
nary and exceptional circumstances. The
British Treasury Department does not, as Mr..
Boutwell, does, enter the market every week or
SO with a modicum Of gold or bundle of
bonds to upset little clique of stock or money
gamblers. France, with all her overwhelming
war disasters and enormous drain upon her re-
sources, feels no such perturbations as we do.
Through her industry and commercial system
and the superior management of that grand
institution, the Bank of France, she is credi-
tor nation and draws all the specie she needs
to herself. With far greater natural resources
and wealth than any country on the globe, this
great American nation is continually disturbed
in its financial affairs, both by foreign in1u-
ences and the combinations Of insignificant
cliques in Wall street This is a monstrous