Show SELFISH GREED Of WAll LL STREET How and Why the Nations Financial Nerve Center Is De Destroying Destroying Destroying Life of Country I OF CHARACTER CHARA TER FROM FIELDS AND PURSUITS IN WHICH THEY MIGHT SHINE The financial of ot this con continent contInent is situated on a narrow street run running running running ning from lower Broadway to the estuary stuary separating sep rating New York Tork from Brooklyn As Asa a symbol of ot the speculation underlying the larger part of at modern industry Wall Vall Wallstreet WallStreet street has become the expression of re relentless relentless relentless materialism and selfish greed until to many well meaning people it is a complex of ot Monte Carlo and the pawn pawnshop pawnshoP pawnshop shop of at the highway and the arena of ot the devil and the deep sea says the Min Mining Mining Mm ing leg and Scientific Press Away from New NewYork NewYork NewYork York on the farms of ot Nebraska or among the mines of ot Colorado this Wall WaIL street streets is s spoken of ot as something utterly wicked i and hopelessly unregenerate Populist orators may be responsible for tor such a aslander slander elander but there are reasons less super superficial Certain it is that no one is more mora surprised at the unfriendly opinions of such provincials than is the banker or broker whose whole soul is In the great game played where Nassau Broad and andall Wall all streets come c together the ganglion of or if a tense nervous whose twitch Ings convulse the markets of this con continent contInEnt from New York to San Francisco from Montreal to the City of Mexico Let us Ul analyze this prejudice against Wall Wail street Is It merely the expression of or ignorance or due to a Jealousy of ot those that pull the strings Is it only the sneer of or the disgruntled or 01 the of a discontented mind We Ye think not To 10 ToUs Us t there is ill a basic reason for the at attitude attitude attitude assumed by the majority of peo pee people people pie in the west liest in regarding Wall street as ItS the epitome of ot sinister lilter speculative ac activity actIvity activity We Ve share it ourselves for the fol following following following lowing reasons Why Wall Street Is Ruinous Wall Wail street absorbs too much of the productive energy of ot the country Thus take a n community like Denver or Salt Lake There you have a population of say any to and the distributing center for a mineral and agricultural region of ot varied resources Among the citizens there are a number of men dis die distinguished distInguished for wealth and initiative If Ifa n a new now gold field is discovered there are always a few such meu men able and willing willingto to buy the prospects and make them mines spines by spending money in exploration and und equipment If an agricultural ex experiment experiment experiment is to be made by irrigation or the cultivation of ot a new ne product such men are arc ready to take the risk of ot start startIng startIng Ing the fresh enterprise If It branch rail railroads railroads railroads roads are required they supply the tile capi capital capital capital tal if It public utilities need to be financed they come com forward We speak of or the kind of ot man that is responsible for the industrial development of or America real captains of at industry not chevaliers but men of ot marked originality broad imagination and invincible invincible ible courage those that do things This typo of ot man means much to a people en engaged engaged upon the industrial conquest of ot a continent But this is the kind of or man that Wall Vall street entices engulfs and out broken and worthless For finding that money can be made faster taster and more easily by buying bu ing mining stocks than by developing mines such men cease to devote themselves to the creative side of industry and become mere gamblers they leave the west and stay at the Waldorf Valdorf Other men who built railroads and were discovered to have unusual executive ability in the administration of a great system of transport also abandoned the career in which they were of ot such obvious usefulness EI in order to speculate peculate In rail railroad railroad railroad road stocks they no longer build rail railroads railroads railroads roads they help to wreck th the companies controlling them at the best they end In Ill ruining themselves if not financially at least as productive members of ot the community It iff not necessary to expand the theme by b referring to other examples of ot misdirected energy The general result is that a distressingly large proportion of the pioneer type of man the men that blaze Mazo the tho trail of industry are tak n away to become essentially unproductive speculators From the provincial town they th go to the financial center from the factory to the hotel from the mine to the bucket shop In short Wall Vall street absorbs too many of ot the dynamic men of America Brains and Ability Wasted We Ve venture to say that the brains and ability wasted upon betting on stocks on Wall street would more than suffice to torun torun torun run the continent of ot Europe and admin administer adminIster ister successfully the political and finan financial financial financial cial affairs of ot every monarch and re republic republic republic public from the Ural Urn mountains to the Irish sea Of course speculation In stocks Is considered a finer occupation than betting on the red and black but it is no nomore nomore nomore more productive of or tangible results and for ourselves we think It nowise different pave ave for tor the larger lar er issues involved Every ery hamlet In the mountains every eve town on the tIlt plains sends a few fp fe of ot the shrewdest most and mo most t for ful Its dynamic men to Wall street every year They The are as sost to pro productive productive Industry as if it they s were were swat swallowed swallowed lowed in a maelstrom Of Ot course wo we know that they originate schemes they underwrite the finances of ot fresh tresh under undertakings undertakings undertakings takings they set going new enterprises that create prosperity for all allot of us so says the apologists But having lived In New York tork and stood on the edge edee ed e of or the crater we are little Inclined to accept such an explanation tion of ot the bubbling and the turmoil the fume and the steam steams that Issue daily dally from the depths making the earth trem tremble tremble tremble ble and the blue sky IkY alternately black with gloom or bright with the tile flashes reflected from the cauldron below Mid Middlemen diemen we must have promoters too and brokers that Is well enough but bu buwe we are protesting against turning natural pioneers into middlemen leaders into be besotted besotted besotted followers engineers Into stock job jobbers jobbers jobbers bers Think of ot the stimulus to Industrial progress possibly even to something high higher er or If about of the brilliant and intensely forceful men now congre congie congregating congregating gating on Wall Wail street were released from the menagerie of bulls and bears to re return return return turn to the mines and farms the rail railroads railroads railroads roads and the factories of this country to give gle to It once more the native in intelligence Intelligence and the uncommon ability that thatis is now devoted to a financial When a strong skillful miner quits work to play faro fare or roulette we call him vie vic vicious ious bus we regret the loss of a fine tine work workman workman workman man we note the degradation of a good citizen The camp needs such men to develop Its mines and the town will suffer by the diversion of such a unit of energy Into an unproductive channel A useful man has become a useless gambler The reasonableness of ot such a aview aview aview view of the matter may not be obvious to everyone but such Is the mental at attitude attitude attitude of at the west to Wall Wan street |