cing feature of continued corporate ownership is the
power over the money markets which it places in the hands of
unscrupulous men, any half dozen of whom can, at such a time as that
following the failure of the Barings, destroy the welfare of millions,
and plunge the country into all the horrors of a money panic. Whether
it be true or not, there are many who believe that a small coterie,
who had information before the public of the condition of Baring
Brothers and that a block of many millions of American railway
securities held by that house were being (or soon would be) pressed
upon the market, entered into a conspiracy for the purpose of locking
up money and thereby depressing prices in order to secure, at low
cost, the control of certain coveted railways. The railways were
secured, and there is not much doubt that they had been lying in wait
for such a critical condition of the money markets to accomplish this
purpose, which still further enhances their power for evil. With the
railways nationalized, not only would there be no temptation for such
nefarious operations, but the power of such men over values would be
greatly lessened, if not wholly destroyed, as there would be no
railway shares for them to play fast and loose with, and as money,
instead of being tied up in loans on chromos representing little but
water, would seek investment in bona fide enterprises, their
operations would have little influence, and would certainly have no
such baleful power over the industries of the country, as their
ability to affect the value of railway shares--on which such immense
sums are now loaned on call--gives them, they being able by locking up
a few millions when the money market is in the condition, which
obtained at the time of the Baring collapse, to force the calling of
loans and the slaughtering of vast numbers of the shares, carrying the
control of the railways they covet. If only for the purpose of
divesting "The dangerous wealthy classes" of this frightful power,
national ownership would be worth many times its cost, and without
such ownership a score of manipulators are soon likely to be complete
masters of the republic and all its industrial interests; hence, the
question reverts to the form stated in the opening of this paper:
Shall the nation accept as a master a political party that may be
dislodged by the use of the ballot, or shall the republic be dominated
by a master in the form of a score of unscrupulous