FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  
e different classes of members who will follow in my footsteps: "First, the 'In Gold We Trust' schemer who is of the 'System' type, but who is outside the magic circle. A man of this class will reason: I know scores of men, who stand high on 'the Street' and in the social world, who have tens of millions that they have filched by 'System' tricks, if not by legal crimes. If I perform this trick of Brownley's, the trick of selling short until a panic is produced, I shall make millions and none will be the wiser. For all I know, many of the multi-millionaires whom I have seen produce panics and who were applauded by 'the Street' and the press for their ability and daring, and whose standing, business and social, is now the highest, were only doing this same thing, and having been successful, they have never been detected or suspected. But even suppose I fail, which can only be through some extraordinary accident happening while I am engaged in selling, I shall have committed no crime, and, in fact, shall have done no one any great moral wrong, for if I fail to carry out my contract to deliver the stock I have sold in trying to produce a panic, the men to whom I have sold will be no worse off for not receiving what they bought; in fact they will stand just where they stood before I attempted to bring on a panic. "Second, if an Exchange member for any reason should find himself overboard and should realise that he must publicly become bankrupt and lose all, he surely would be a fool not to attempt to produce a panic, when its production would enable him to recoup his losses and prevent his failure, and when if by accident he should fail in his attempt to produce a panic, the penalty would simply be his bankruptcy, which would have taken place in any event. "The third class is that large one that always will exist while there is stock-gambling, a class of honest, square-dealing-play-the-game-fair-Exchange men who would take no unfair advantage of their fellow-members until they become awakened to the knowledge that they are about to be ruined by their fellow-members' trickery. "Next, let us consider further whether it is possible for our Exchange to prevent my device from being worked, now that it is known to all. Suppose the Governing Committee was informed in advance that the attempt to work the trick was to be made. If, at any session, after gong-strike, the Governing Committee, or any Exchange authority, could for
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   >>  



Top keywords:
produce
 

Exchange

 

attempt

 
members
 

accident

 

Committee

 

selling

 

Governing

 
System
 
fellow

social

 

reason

 

Street

 

millions

 

prevent

 

production

 

losses

 

simply

 

recoup

 
penalty

failure
 

enable

 
overboard
 

authority

 

member

 

Second

 

realise

 
strike
 
surely
 

bankruptcy


publicly
 

bankrupt

 

session

 

ruined

 

trickery

 

awakened

 

knowledge

 

Suppose

 

device

 

worked


advantage

 

unfair

 

gambling

 
honest
 

square

 

informed

 

dealing

 

advance

 

engaged

 

Brownley