CORPORATE FACTORS IN PROGRESS 385 



Not so many years ago speculation in stocks was con- 

 fined to New York and two or three of the principal cities in 

 the interior. Chicago was of course the headquarters of 

 speculation in grain, but its stock exchange was of very little 

 account. In the same way there was very little betting on 

 races. The average American had enough to do attending 

 to his own business, and he seldom went farther afield. But 

 an enormous expansion of all kinds of gambling is now visible. 

 The Western Union Telegraph company supplies stock quota- 

 tions and racing news at a fixed rate per annum to all and 

 sundry. Every hotel and beer saloon has its ticker. Every 

 town of fifteen or twenty thousand inhabitants has a stock 

 exchange or a board of trade. Every provincial broker who 

 would be thought anything of has his special wires from Wall 

 street and issues his daily bulletin to clients. From Boston 

 to San Francisco nearly everybody talks more or less of 

 stocks, options, bulges, and corners. The huge advances 

 which all leading stocks have made since the reorganizations 

 of 1895-96 have thrown a glamour over the whole country. 

 People who never touched stocks before now regard them as 

 a lottery in which big prizes are to be drawn. Again and 

 again they try their luck, and they have just enough success 

 to keep up their interest in the game. 



There is thus a plentiful supply of inflammable material 

 for the Wall street leaders to operate on. A hint has only 

 to be dropped that the Morgan brokers have been large buyers 

 of southerns, or that Mr. Keene speaks well of Union Pacific 

 prospects, or that Mr. Gates has formed a bull pool in Atchi- 

 son, and it will be flashed across the continent over every 

 tape machine and into the columns of every newspaper. 

 Then the bull fever breaks out again, and orders to buy are 

 flashed back to Wall street from all over the country. From 

 Montreal to El Paso, and from Philadelphia to Seattle, the 

 grand army of punters answer to the signal. A leader can 

 do almost anything with such a following. He can run up 

 prices till he gets tired of raking in profits. He can unload 

 shares by tens of thousands in sure and perfect hope that he 

 will be able to get them back again when he wants them, and 

 at his own price. He can lure them on with " privileges," 



Vol. 3-25. 



