Henry Clews

“ Honor and truthfulness are the cornerstones on which the whole fabric of business in Wall Street is built, and confidence is the keystone of the arch that covers all transactions. The fact that a weak spot is occasionally uncovered proves the strength of the general structure. There is no place in the world where the measure of confidence between employer and employee is so large and where loyally to each other is so marked. In whatever business a young man intends to embark, a year or two in Wall Street is a good training, as he will learn much that will benefit him in after life. ”

“ How many forget that in Wall Street the investor can deal with greater advantage to himself, as a rule, than in any other financial market? How many understand that there the country can best settle its accounts; send its savings, and make its investments more readily and on better terms than anywhere else? The very individuals who most violently abuse Wall Street are often among the first to go there for financing new enterprises or to pick up cheap investments. ”

“ Born of the spirit of resistance to oppression, with the broadest and freest constitution that the world has ever known—a land of freedom and equality in the best and most liberal sense of the term—it would seem that the sincere lover of liberty and equality could ask no better home than this democracy of ours—whose glorious flag floats over eighty-four millions of prosperous and enlightened people. ”

“ It is almost needless to say that, of all corporations, our National Banks should be the last to be used for illegal purposes, or to promote personal gain or speculations.
When a man in power imperils the solvency and good reputation of one of our banks, he is a public enemy, and as mean and guilty as one who attacks the virtue of a virtuous woman. To destroy confidence in that woman and her good name is to do her an irreparable wrong. ”

“ And right here, I take the position and shall ever contend, that the United States (of all countries in the world) is no place for Socialism. Let us never forget that it was founded by the wisdom and patriotism of the Fathers of the Revolution, and that it is blessed with a Constitution, framed by men who loved individual freedom and national liberty, and who risked their lives and sacrificed their property in the struggle to overthrow injustice and oppression and achieve independence and individual equality. ”

“ Nature herself may be said to laugh, and why not overburdened business men? The pranks at Christmas on the Stock Exchange, the sound of hand organs in the Board Room, the smashing of hats, pushing and jostling, the 605blowing of tin horns, the waltzes and lanciers, the walking matches, wrestling and sparring—these are only the natural reaction through the safety valve of humor which tend to relieve undue tension and keep the spirits clear and fresh. There is more or less skylarking on all dull days, and the effect is mental invigoration. ”

“ Honesty is not only the best polity, but a moral duty, and should be as much the watchword of corporations as of individuals, and no man should betray his trust for either love or money, whether acting in or out of a corporate capacity.
There is more permanent prosperity, as well as honor, to be secured by honest than dishonest means, and to quote the Bible, “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, 820and lose his own soul?” Yet unscrupulousness in high places of trust is often forced upon public attention. ”

“ It is almost impossible for a man who has had no experience in Wall Street matters to estimate the extremes of fanaticism in speculation to which a man is prepared to go when he is seized with a monomania either on the bull or the bear side, but especially on the latter.
The evidence of his senses counts for nothing, and the evidence of other people’s senses, if possible, goes for less. He is a consistent bull or bear, as the case may be, and that settles it. He is Sir Oracle on the stock market and when he speaks let no dog bark. ”

“ They carry on mad hostility against all established institutions. They would choke the fountain of industry, and dry all the streams. In a country of unbounded liberty they clamor against oppression. In a country of perfect equality they would move heaven and earth against privilege and monopoly. In a country where property is more evenly divided than anywhere else they rend the air shouting agrarian doctrines. In a country where the wages of labor are high beyond parallel, they would teach the laborer that he is but an oppressed slave. ”

“ If the United States Government ever expects to obtain that permanent high credit in the money markets of the world to which the immense resources of this magnificent country justly entitle her, the great and growing evil of State repudiation must be remedied. For States to repudiate with impunity, as the State of Georgia has done, leaving no means whatever for redress on the part of the victimized creditors, is a blot upon the escutcheon of the whole country. ”

“ As there is always a class of speculators whose operations, in the long run, leave a net result of loss rather than profit, it may not be amiss if I state what experience has taught me as to the causes of this want of success.
Undoubtedly, many who enter the arena of speculation are in every way unfitted to take the risks against such wily opponents as they must encounter. They are either too ignorant or too wise, too timid or too bold, too pessimistic or too sanguine, too slow or too hasty, too diffident or too conceited, too confiding or too incredulous. ”

“ Upon this issue, so joined, I stand firmly in favor of the principle of competition, and that system of Individualism which guards, protects and encourages competition. It is that system of government under which we live to-day—a government of the people, by the people and for the people—the United States of America—a free system of government, in the best and broadest sense of the term.
Under this free system of government, whereby individuals are free to get a living or to pursue wealth as each chooses, the usual result is competition. ”

“ It is impossible, in the social and moral nature of things, to unite a large number of men, representing important material interests, except on principles of equity and fair dealing. A conspiracy to cheat must always be confined to a small number.
The most successful men of Wall Street, to my own personal knowledge, are those who came to the Street young and have “gone through the mill,” so to speak; those who have received severe training, who have had some sledgehammer blows applied to their heads to temper them, like the conversion of iron into steel. ”

“ All progress in history has been made through struggle and sacrifice; and Socialism, no matter how beneficent its intentions, cannot change the inscrutable laws of nature or humanity. All natural laws have their reverse side. Gravitation, which keeps us firm on our feet so long as we are on solid ground, knocks us to pieces if we attempt to walk off a housetop or over the opening of a pit. It is not the natural law, but the attempt to ignore it, that gives us trouble.
I most emphatically assert that we cannot get rid of competition, any more than we can get rid of the law of gravitation. ”

“ In reviewing the past, I am struck with the enormous growth of New York as a city, New York as a State, and the United States as a Nation. The fact is that we hustle through the business world so fast (and this is especially applicable to Wall Street) , that we do not realize how rapidly we are going. To any one who is familiar with the appearance of the down town or business part of the city, as it was twenty years ago, ten years ago, or even eight years ago, the difference to-day will give some intimation of the changes which are going on around us, and are merely features of development. ”

“ Great fortunes accumulated by monopoly and oppression, and other dishonest means, are no credit to their possessors, but really a reproach, and the abuse of power by them is a great national evil. Every business man should take pride not only in his regard for honesty, truth, and fair dealing, but in his own personal honor, whether he is acting for a corporation or himself. We are now on the highroad to the correction of a multitude of abuses and the country is to be congratulated upon this salutary movement for improvement and reform in our business methods. ”

“ Obviously, then, competition really means industrial freedom. Thus, any one may choose his own trade or profession, or, if he does not like it, he may change. He is free to work hard or not; he may make his own bargains and set his price upon his labor or his products. He is free to acquire property to any extent, or to part with it. By dint of greater effort or superior skill, or by intelligence, if he can make better wages, he is free to live better, just as his neighbor is free to follow his example and to learn to excel him in turn. ”

“ No man in the stock market exercised so much influence as Mr. Keene. He had hosts of friends, friends whom he grappled with hooks of steel, ready to swear by him on any and every occasion. Generous to a fault, brusque in manner at times, but with the heart of a woman, ready to melt at a moment’s notice, open-handed and open-hearted to the appeal of even an acquaintance, no wonder that Jim Keene was the ideal of the market.”
It is not generally known that Keene was chiefly instrumental in rehabilitating the Bank of California after the death of Ralston. ”

“ Roosevelt will, therefore, see, now that he is becoming more and more cognizant of the situation, that what the public, and particularly the investing class, needs in this period of stress and storm and anxiety, is to be calmed and reassured and made aware that there is a silver lining to the cloud, and no good reason for their loss of confidence; for the country is still as great and grand, and prolific in its resources, as ever, with its future no less promising and magnificent than it was before this crisis darkened the sky. ”

“ It is the natural balance wheel of commerce and finance. By its means and through the conflict of opinion between buyers and sellers real values are established by simpler and more reliable means than by any other known methods. No Government investigation will ever ascertain the real value of our railroads so well as the higgling and bargaining between buyers and sellers, which is alike the moving spirit of commerce and the arbiter of values on all Stock Exchanges the world over. Speculation is liable to be carried to excess, and abuses in speculative methods undoubtedly exist ”

“ The bold, and even aggressive, action of the American Federation of Labor in going to Washington and making demands upon Congress, and criticizing not only the laws but the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, puts a new and serious face on the old contest between Labor and Capital. It arouses some apprehension as to the lengths to which Labor will go, and how far its political influence may enable it to accomplish its purposes. Politicians are ever ready to show subserviency to Labor, merely for the purpose of gaining votes for themselves. ”

“ Surely it is a privilege that you all value, and can hardly overvalue, that of becoming American citizens, and thus forming a part of this free and glorious Republic, where the gates of opportunity are thrown wide open to you, and the golden harvest of success stands ready to be reaped by the worthy and deserving, who are able and willing to do good work, and work hard in their chosen calling. ”

“ Does it not, indeed, sound like a paradox to hear this cry of Socialism still rending the air while every avenue of fortune lies open to everyone? It is a glaring anomaly of the times, an offence to American institutions, a poor return for our national hospitality. Vague and illogical as the theories advanced by the doctrinaires of Socialism are, there runs throughout all their teachings and preachings bitter and radical opposition to individual accumulation of wealth and individual competition in industry. ”

“ Bryan and others who have denounced the New York Stock Exchange to call it a gambling arena and its members gamblers. They are brokers in a free market, a market open to all the world, and they are ready to receive and execute orders from all the world, and whether or not these orders are for investment or speculative account, it is not for them to inquire. Still less is it for them to discriminate against speculation, when speculative far more than investment dealings are the life of every stock exchange in the world. A stock exchange to have any value must be a free market. ”

“ Destroy confidence in a bank and you destroy that which is one of the corner-stones of business prosperity. Those who invest in railroad stocks, or stocks of Industrial corporations, risk only the cost of their investment, but the holder of record of a National Bank stock is liable for an additional amount equal to the par value of his holdings.
Publicity is the greatest safeguard of the prosperity of any corporate enterprise, and the best preventive of irregularities and frauds. Many men will do in secret what they would fear and refuse to do under the public eye ”

“ The time will come when every citizen will clearly perceive how his interests have been sacrificed for the creation of this abnormal class; and, when that time comes, a series of public questions will arise that will strain our political institutions to their very foundations. Already the working masses begin to see the dim outline of the gigantic wrong that has been inflicted upon them in common with all other classes. If they do not understand the exact method by which a portion of the rewards of labor has thus been diverted from them, they clearly comprehend which is the class responsible. ”

“ This curtailment of our imports, especially of luxuries, has made the shoe pinch in Europe, for we had been Europe’s best foreign customers. But, naturally extravagant as we are as a people, we can economize with as much ease, celerity and determination as we can spend, when the necessity to do so arises. So we are at present economizing on a grand scale and with great success.
We have only to consider our unlimited sources of national wealth, however, to see that the prospect before us is one that should inspire absolute confidence in the gradual return of prosperity in all directions. ”

“ Usually a boom centres about some one man who stands boldly out in the open, or whose hand it is known is manipulating values. At present the manipulation is being carried on in a method that is as quiet as it is novel and unusual. That the market is being manipulated, is apparent enough even to the most casual observer. But the source of this manipulation is probably known only to a few; all others are but students in the Street. They know that a new order has come, and that this order is due to the most powerful and resistless influence that has ever manifested itself in Wall Street. ”

“ Equality is another name for justice. It is also the touchstone of taxation. Workmen should not forget that even half a loaf is better than no bread, and that by accepting reduced wages they are paving the way to better times for themselves as well as for the country. Then, too, they owe a duty to society at large. No one should be governed by the narrow, selfish policy of living for himself alone. This is a world in which we must give and take, and labor and capital have mutual interests. ”

“ It is a mistake, or a slander, to say that Theodore Roosevelt has made war against capital. He is only opposed to dishonest corporate methods, and dishonestly acquired wealth. He respects the possessors of honorably acquired and honestly used fortunes, and would protect their property interests in every way possible, and guard them against injustice, and be resolute in defending their rights; for their success leads to the inference that they are good citizens. ”

“ Morgan is endowed with very positive traits of character. He has the driving powers of a locomotive. He cares nothing for show; he is a plain man of action. He strikes hard blows; he is naturally aggressive. In speech he is candid to the verge of bluntness; in action he is short, sharp and decisive. Like a true soldier, he is a man of acts rather than words. Rugged as a Spartan in his nature, hating circumlocution, bombast and palaver, going straight to the mark, yet with due caution and prudence, he exhibits many of the best traits of the practical financier. ”

“ No one is taught that Wall Street is merely a central market for capital, just as Chicago is for wheat, Boston for wool, New Orleans for cotton, etc. How many appreciate the fact that Wall Street is as essential to the business life of the country as is the Legislature at Washington to our political life? How many realize that Wall Street is the primary nerve center of the American business world ”