206 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



drawal of the sums that go to purchase these wretched 

 securities, and an element of unsoundness is introduced 

 into the finances of the country that may yet involve 

 us in a disaster infinitely worse than the panic from 

 which we have just emerged. 



Unquestionably the people are to blame for much of 

 the evil that is upon us, for they are free to refuse to 

 purchase these securities when placed in the market ; 

 but they are not altogether to blame. There are always 

 numbers of people of moderate means who are very 

 naturally and properly seeking some simple and safe 

 investment for their money, and they are not fitted to 

 judge very accurately of the value of the different 

 schemes proposed to them. They must of necessity 

 depend upon the representations of the house offering 

 the securities for sale, and it is but natural that when 

 a prominent house, enjoying the confidence of the pub- 

 lic, presents such securities, and endorses them as both 

 safe and profitable, such securities should be eagerly 

 taken by the class we have described. The banker who 

 undertakes a negotiation of this kind assumes a respon- 

 sibility to the purchasers of the bonds, of which no 

 amount of " Wall street logic " can relieve him. It is 

 a melancholy fact that one of the first banking houses 

 in the country, men whose names have hitherto com- 

 manded the confidence of the public, has been among 

 the foremost in flooding the market with wild-cat railroad 

 securities. The recent panic revealed some ugly facts 

 of this kind, and the people of the United States, it is 

 to be hoped, will not be unmindful of them. 



The people owe it to themselves to put a stop to this 

 reckless system of railroad-building, which is simply 

 gambling under another form. They should refuse to 



