Year: 1872

ventcds


! Wall street has experienced another of those
| financial and stock disturbances that come at
intervals through the gambling propensity
and grasping cupidity of few prominent
stock and gold gamblers. Sometimes it is one
set of operators or combination and some
times another, and not unfrequently some OF
the same individuals participate in many of
the stock and gold cornerng schemes that are
developed at different times With these latter
it is an incurable propensity. The faro table
is not more fascinating to the inveterate
gamester than is making a corner in
Wall street to such men. This time
the Operators named conspicuously
are Daniel Drew. Henry N. Smith
and Jay Gould. There may be other partici-
pators more in the shade. Some of these at
least have been engaged before in like prac
tices, as will be remembered, and no doubt
will try again the same financial jugglery
whenever another opportunity occurs. Both
the facts and the process of this latest corner
ing scheme are known to all the professional
| Wall street gamblers, and our merchants and
the business community generally understand





large, however, is not SO well informed, and
therefore we shall briefly notice what has been
already fully explained in the financial articles
of this paper.


| In few words, then, the ducks and geese,
lame or otherwise, and the spectators gener-
ally had been operating very extensively and
beyond their actual means in an extremity in
stocks and gold, and there was a general
disposition to what is called an active market.
In view of this state of things the shrewd
spectators we have named, and their allies,
perhaps, saw there was an opportunity of trip
ping up the host of small fry and over-conf-
dent operators, and bought up Erie stock,
money and gold so that those who had sales
to deliver were cornered. But the singular
circumstance of the whole financial difficulty


was that there were triple corners operating


one against the other and all at the same


time creating stringency and embarrassment.


Drew had bought Erie and made corner in


that and when he wanted the money to carry


out his object he found that Gould and
Smith had made corner both in the money
and gold market, which compelled him to pay


dearly with one hand for the operations he


had made with the other. The German gold


brokers and bankers, who had large


demand for gold and were short of it,


were placed in like dilemma. Hence the en-


barrassment to those who had engagements to


fulfil in Erie stock and the consequent effect


upon other stocks on one hand, and the


tightening of the money market and extra


ordinary high rate of interest on the other.


1t was said that Drew, Gould and Smith were


endeavoring to make an arrangement among


themselves both to protect their interests and


to control the financial situation. But the


purchase of three millions of bonds by the


Secretary of the Treasury has given some ease


and checked to some extent their speculations.


In case of prolonged difficulty Mr.. Boutwell,


might go further and sell gold, though moth
, ing is known yet of such purpose. 1t is said
the cornering cliques are still actively at work


to control the stock and money market There
appears to be less fear of their power, however,
: as the market was easier at the close of the
business yesterday.


That three or four men with an entire capi-


tai of five to ten millions merely should be


eble to seriously disturb the money and stock


market, and raise the rate of interest to FIVE


eighths per cent day, or two hundred and


twenty-five per cent per annum, is an anomaly
that must astound most people. To the un-


initiated and ordinary observer of financial
transactions this must appear inexplicable.
. In this vast commercial and financial centre
} there are transactions to over hundred mil
lions day. banks with a capital of eighty


millions and controlling three hundred mil
lions of money, with near o hundred millions
lying in the Sub-Treasury in this city, and


yet clique Of three or four men commanding


six or seven millions only can make money or
stock scarce, send the rate of interest


up enormously, disturb values and en-


barrass the whole business community
There is nothing logical or reasonable in this,
and, however long such financial state of
affairs may have existed, it is abnormal and
contrary to good sense. There is something
radically wrong that must be susceptible of o
remedy. Laws are made against gambling
houses, if they are not always executed as they
should be, and this gambling in Wall street
with the most vital interests of the country
ought to be and can be suppressed. The
officers Of the law may not, in certain locali-
ties, be vigilant enough in breaking up faro
banks or other similar establishments on


account of certain local influences and be-
cause the victims are limited and voluntary;
but the whole mercantile and business COM
munity would be interested in restraining the
gold and stock gamblers if there were o law
for that purpose.


1t is well to remark here that much depends


upon the standard of morality in this respect
fixed by the government primarily and by the