THE HOME OF MONEY THRILLS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 November 1927, Page 4

THE HOME OF MONEY THRILLS.

WHERE WALL-STREET HEATS .MONTE CARLO

NEW YORK, September 8

To people in search of money thrills Wall-street is the most satisfactory spot in all tlie world. It has .Monte Carlo mid other gambling resorts beaten to n frazzle- 15 1 iico in the splcnour

of its hazards, in the colossal dimensions of its prizes, and in human melodrama accompanying its operations. Tile roulette tallies of its stocks and shares revolve seemingly in a magical atmosphere, illuminated by a lamp ol Aladdin revealing to the gaze of millions of speculators visions of industrial and commercial enterprises which distribute some £7f;t),000.000 in dividends and claims an output valued at some U0.000.000.0Dd yearly.

To choose the winners and avoid the losers in this vast universe ol finance is the fascinating hazard staged by 'Wall-street ; and the public finds this game so alluring that it pays its brokers in commissions alone £00.00!) daily or more than £18,000,000 a year for running it. In the development of the game the brokers spare no expense. They provide the players with sumptuous quarters in every part of the country. At all the leading betels. for instance, they maintain elaborately furnished offices where, in tan intervals of sight-seeing. tourist*, male and female, take their seats rn

lounges and easy chairs hclnre a huge bulletin board on which athletic young clerks post the liiiiiute-hy-niiiiutc prices flashed by special wire straight from AVall-slreet:. Thus wherever it may he, the public is always in < lose-i touch with its speculations. In this way it now buys and sells in the neighbourhood r.f 10,000,000 shares wecklv and transactions arc consum-

mated on the Stock Exchange involving to quote a rough estimate, a tuii.over of £-200.0fM),<::!0 weekly or £lO.000,000.000 a year. Of the money v<qtlired for its purchases the pub he puts up an average r.f from ]0 to *-0 per cent. The remainder is loaned by the hanks on the security of the stocks. These loans at the moment amount approximatey to Ci0,000,f\.3

The romance of Wall-street and of its greatest of hull markets, which is stiff in full swing, is reflected in all classes of society. Its money thrills pervade the whole nation. In a Turkish hath I recently found myself in the hands of a masseur who had just reaped a fortune of tS'.f.Ct’O. An Knglishnni.li by firth, he cherished a quaint grievam-. “Mr S -• ’ reniarkt*<l whimsically. nicntin'iin;/ t. i; * n<mH‘ ri jiii '?!iii lll *ili NV’v 's s?. lirokiT. ‘‘t-tiw me a kUMor * • ‘‘ vl ‘ : . v time 1 ru!) him. and i km! 0,1 {V - vJ,,p ' j niiior my accounts that I i>t\id him la-, month in commission o*i m\ st<ak opera Lions.’ ’ I Jo is only loss rortimato limn two ladies who at a (oektail party given fy a broker to a s, :rc ~r more of Inclients hoastod. one that she had sold her house ta purchase some railway stocks, netting £fi!>.CC9 by ture. I he oilier that for three years past she had won £2o.ol'<! a year in the market. ••You nun probably t"'l me." ef served a third lady. “how to obtain >H mink fur taal on wliie-1 I lia'.e s-- t-M heart. Us price i. £lO k and !’ at is more than 1 mm afford.” 'A oh a laogll ecu.. IV answer: “ lT V.O can risk £27 - buy . - < tver t •') -„ar ol Commercial Kolivds.” four day- later came the voia.'l. hhe had .<g.ii.i• ■ 1 in the u. :.i:! ia.e ”oints •••• I l*»r----r-ha v and t rium phai:t !y she leb-p'toned tin- dispenser ef ! ; w information :'T > (•• u: • la fa and take a look at '■■■ ( oiniiicniai Solvents; il fits heniuifully.” A fleeting glance a.l the St..ric change quotations is all tna*. is needed to verify these and hosts ol similar incidents. It reveals the astounding fact that since 1921 many of the railwav' stocks have quadrupled in value; that in the same period Mi neral Molars. which is now '.'anting at the rate of nearly £10,090.000 a ye.ar, has also quadrupled the price of its shares that, K.S. Steel has doubled in price;

that £'9 invested in American Water Works is now worth £105; and that Commercial Solvents, to quote only one more of many “star performers” on the Stuck Excbange, has risen in 18 months from £25 a share to £75. Yet Wall-street is contemplating now with a somewhat anxious eye the vertiginous heights to whicli its stocks have soared, ft believes, it is true, that it lias found the secret of “stt.ihilised prosperity,” and that the panics ef old have boon rendered ior ever impossible by the revolution in mercantile practices brought about by the “deflation crisis” which ravaged it; speculations in 19*21. No longer, it point-, out. do merchants expose themselves to t'i'q perils of long “forward buying and of the accumulation of supplies which in perods of slackness have to be thrown on the market at below cost price. Ifotli they and the manufacturers. with the co-operation of the railways, which are immensely more efficient and expeditious than formerly, have adjusted themselves to “haml-to mouth” orders; so that altogether an era in which supply promptly meets, but dues not outpace, demand seems to Well-St reel to have been (irmly established. Moreover, money is {.heap and over-abundant and likelv to remain so.

Hut, Wall-street has not forgotten the “financial cyclone” which burst open its bull market 18 months ago and is. therefore, hoisting danger signals. Meanwhile, the bull market continues its ascents and the Mall-

street reporters record the appearance of “A) new peaks” in its industrial stocks. Aladdin's lamp, it seems, is still at work.