3 86 W. R. LAWSON 



new issues, combinations, rumors of increased dividends, 

 and all the rainbow visions that fascinate the gambler. If 

 now and then he takes out the peg which holds up their fool's 

 paradise and lets them drop into the cellar, the worst he has 

 to fear is that they may storm and swear a bit. But he knows 

 they are very forgiving, and at the first offer of a new plum 

 they will all swarm round him again. 



The only British parallel to a Wall street leader is a 

 popular company promoter. But he is a mere rocket in com- 

 parison. No sooner is he up skyhigh than down he comes 

 like a stick with a crowd of furious dupes on top of him. The 

 same rocket seldom goes up a second time, but a Wall street 

 juggler can play the game over and over again ad libitum. 

 Mr. Gates himself has been at it for at least ten years. Our 

 company promoting rockets have other limitations which do 

 not trouble their American prototypes. They have to be 

 content with what they can work off on the public. Our 

 banks and finance houses are, as a rule, closed to them or 

 opened only sparingly. But the Wall street juggler has banks 

 and trust companies galore at his service as well as the public 

 pocket. 



Herein is the greatest peril of the American situation. 

 A private speculator may lose his money and be done with it, 

 but when a bank or a trust company loses money it may be 

 the beginning of far reaching trouble. After what has been 

 said in defense of intelligent speculation within safe and 

 moderate bounds, it will not be supposed that we are purists 

 in this matter. But in the name of sound honest finance a 

 protest has to be raised against financial institutions which 

 have the interests of seventy eight millions of people to protect, 

 mixing themselves up, however slightly, with Wall street 

 plungers of the Gates type. The Gates corner in Louisville 

 & Nashville stock could never have been thought of if two 

 or three considerable banks had not undertaken to back it. 

 Without them nothing Mr. Gates or his confederates could 

 have done would have mattered much to any one but them- 

 selves. But when important banks will stoop to such opera- 

 tions it is impossible to say what they may not do. They forget 

 entirely their proper duties and responsibilities when they 



