It is not necessary that I should draw the difficult line between
honorable and dishonorable speculation. God has drawn it through every
man's conscience. The broker guilty of "cornering" as well knows that
he is sinning against God and man, as though the flame of Mount Sinai
singed his eyebrows. He hears that a brother broker has sold "short,"
and immediately goes about with a wise look, saying: "Erie is going
down--Erie is going down; prepare for it." Immediately the people
begin to sell; he buys up the stock; monopolizes the whole affair;
drags down the man who sold short; makes largely, pockets the gain,
and thanks the Lord for great prosperity in business. You call it
"cornering." I call it gambling, theft, highway robbery, villany
accursed.
It is astonishing how some men, who are kind in their families, useful
in the church, charitable to the poor, are utterly transformed of the
devil as soon as they enter the Stock Exchange. A respectable member
of one of the churches of the city went into a broker's office and
said: "Get me one hundred shares of Reading, and carry it; I will
leave a margin of five hundred dollars.
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