MILLIONS WON AND LOST

Evening Star, Issue 19409, 18 November 1926, Page 9

MILLIONS WON AND LOST

i.— -» STOCK EXGHANE DRAMAS DURING PANICS Behind the dramatic scenes of a financial panic, whether it be caused by the fall of the franc, by a gamble in the Chicago wheat pit, or a catastrophic fall in the price of raw rubber, arc ruined homes and breaking hearts, for small investors risk their all in the games played by the kings of finance, and too often watch their little capital steadily dwindle to vanishing point. Great speculators regard a gamble in francs or wheat or rubber, or necessities of life, as a game and no more. But, of the millions lost daily, a great part belongs to the people who cannot afford to lose. Tragic scenes, not long ago, attended the fall of the German mark, when thousands of British people who had Invested sums ranging from a few pounds upwards, in the doomed currency, believed to the very last that it would bo “ saved ” in some way. In bitter, deepening anxiety they watched and waited while the mark fell lower and lower. Similarly with the franc. Apart from the mere gamblers there are cautions investors who have been caught by the catastrophic fall, and who find themselves in _ straitened circumstances through their faith in the French currency. In one case an investment of £500,000 has resulted in a loss of £400,000, and the unlucky investor, had he not sold out in time, would by tq-day have lost a further £50,000 on his deal, “Currency gambling,” said a prominent bank official to the ‘ Sunday Chronicle/ “ is the very worst form of speculation. It is much simpler and less worrying to lose the money on the turf, for a horse does give you a sporting run for your money, but the same cannot be said of foreign currencies.” The “Wheat Pit” of Chicago is one of tho greatest gambling centres of the world, and here fortunes are made and lost in a day time after time. Mr Arthur Gotten, one of the great figures among speculators there, has more than once made a profit of half a million a month; he began life as a bookkeeper, and left a post of £5 a week to handle millions. John W. Mackay, known ns “The Silver King,” was one of the tragic figures of the wheat pit. He made a “ corner ” of ten million bushels of wheat, but while tho operation was in progress his partner’s son suddenly went blind, at which the father lost his nerve. Mackay lost half a million sterling before he closed his deal. The biggest loser, of nil was Janies Keene, who had a reputation as the cleverest gambler in New York. _ He backed his brains against the Chicago “pit,” with tho t aid of Jay Gould, tho American financier, but Gould turned against him. After stupendous attempts to fight bis way through Keene admitted defeat. He had lost £1,760,000. During a wheat panic, when fortunes aro lost and made in an hour, tho “ pit ” goes mad with excitement, and its members appear like a bowling crowd of lunatics. Haggard, dishevelled men fight like animals, shouting mysterious figures at each other, and* thrusting their fingers into tho air. Each position of the hand has a special • moaning among the dealers. One of tho biggest operators in the pit was James Patten, who, together with his partners, cleared oyer a million sterling in one deal. _ Patten’s share was nearly half a million. He might have made more, but his wife induced him to clear out with the profits already gained. She had._ a vision of the* price of bread 'being forced up, and poor people driven to starvation, and she pleaded with Patten to “ clear out ” before he became known as an oppressor of the poor.