nstitutions set down their names to take and
pay for the shares or bonds. With the money thus obtained the property
is purchased. _Or_ the individuals who own the property which is to be
the basis of the corporation exchange it for all or part of the stocks
and bonds. In the latter event those original owners usually sell to the
public the tokens thus acquired.

Honest men in forming a corporation make publicly known the character
and worth of the properties or enterprises they are organizing, what
they have cost, what their profits are, and what may reasonably be
expected by investors. The tricksters and the "System," with whom
incorporation is generally but the first step in a conspiracy for
plunder, surround the proceeding with an air of mystery and refuse
information usually with: "We do our business quietly and in silence,
and those who do not like our ways may keep out of this scheme." Their
whole procedure is of that high and mighty order which impresses the
ordinary mortal with a sense of confidence in the independence of its
users and a conviction that their scheme must be so good that they do
not care whether they sell or not. This is just the effect it is
intended to produce.

The next step is to lead the people toward the shambles. This is done by
"moulding public opinion," and for this interesting function the
"System" and Wall Street have an equipment of magical potency. Public
opinion is made through the daily press, through financial publications
of various kinds, and through "news bureaus." Every great daily has a
financial editor and a corps of experts in finance who spend their days
on "the Street" cultivating the friendship of the financiers. At night
they are round the clubs and hotels where the brokers and promoters
congregate, debating the events of the day and organizing those of the
morrow. There are also the strictly financial papers--daily, weekly,
and monthly--whose corps of editors and news gatherers live on "the
Street," and know and care for nothing but finance. And lastly, there
are the news bureaus, with runners out everywhere to gather in items of
news affecting stocks, Wall Street or finance. These are printed on
small square sheets of paper, and delivered by an army of boys at brief
intervals while the Stock Exchange is open at the offices of the
bankers, brokers, insurance companies, and hotels; or the same matter is
disseminated by means of an automatic printing machine called a
n