382 W. R. LAWSON 



of finance. He read aright the Olympian message and climbed 

 down, but not unconditionally. Mr. Morgan and the banks 

 had to pledge themselves to protect the three hundred thou- 

 sand shares which Mr. Gates would be left with if the bear 

 squeeze did not come off. 



The Gates-Louisville episode of 1902 is so far the high- 

 water mark of Napoleonic stock gambling. We have pre- 

 sented it thus early in our sketch of Wall street for that 

 reason. It represents in a striking and graphic way how far 

 the stock gamblers of the period are prepared to go in the 

 manipulation of markets — not stock markets alone, but grain, 

 cotton, tobacco, iron, steel, coal, or any other staple with a 

 "pull" in it, according to Wall street slang. Conversely it 

 shows how much these markets have all the time to fear from 

 the most daring and reckless manipulators. We may be asked 

 how such things can be done in New York and not elsewhere. 

 That is a question on which a great deal hangs. The possi- 

 bility of such things being done in New York, not once or 

 now and then, but almost any day in the week, seriously 

 compromises the whole industrial system of the United States. 

 Unfortunately the champion stock gamblers are also the in- 

 dustrial kings. This same Mr. Gates was a leading promoter 

 of the United States Steel corporation. He has been an 

 active lieutenant of Mr. Morgan in other big deals. He is 

 understood to control quite a number of railroads. And his 

 exploit in cornering July corn proved him to be also a man 

 of some importance in the grain market. 



The big deals which are now almost daily events in Wall 

 street are not merely alarming in themselves — they are much 

 more so for the character of the men engaged in them. These 

 men are, sad to say, not ordinary gamblers. They are also 

 financiers of genius and commanding ability. As financiers 

 they are at the head of their profession, not in New York only 

 but in the world. A group of them, not exceeding a score 

 perhaps, hold all the principal banks in New York and Chicago 

 in the hollow of their hands; they control all the chief railroad 

 systems; they are nearly if not quite as omnipotent in politics 

 as in finance. Only two checks on them can be said to exist. 

 One is President Roosevelt and the other is the great labor 



