MAD SPECULATION

Hokitika Guardian, 3 November 1932, Page 2

MAD SPECULATION

AMERICANS IN BOOM PERIOD

PROCESS NOW REVERSED

AUCKLAND, Nov, 1

V. Described on the list of distinguished passengers as" “Capitalist, of San Fraiicisfio, on a pleasure trip,” Mr E. L. Malsbary arrived by the the Mon-' terey. He spbke of the “mad wave of speculation” that swept over the United States before the boom broke, and remarked that he could not u iuerstand the minds of the . speculators who bought stocks with ai total disregard of their dividend-paying capacity. Air that the speculator had in mind was to buy and sell, and many of the shares purchasi 1 were not returning even 1 per cc.it. “You do see something for your money when/ you back a horse,” He said with a smile, “but thousands of people who gambled on the stock market got nothing for their investments. Many of these people were ordinary workers and tradesmen who were obsessed with the ideal there there was money, in anything they bought on the Stock Exchange.”

lleferrir y to real estate, Mr Malsbary said farms and city lots were in the process 'of “de-bo.omiilg.” Matty people had bought ftjrms at high prices when produce was at the peak, ftnd had suffered in consequence. “It is not a ioc il failing,” he said, “but a world-Hvide happening.” In ai recent trip through the United States he had had a conversation with a man on the land who was a hit of a philosopher. “Hard times have not come,” was his comment, “but easy times have gone.” ■•

Mr Malsbary stated that lie was a Republican, -and had always voted •that way, and he thought that it was unfair to blame Mr Hoover for the depression. Some of the Australian States had had Labour Governments, but that had not stopped the depression. ;No o ne set of statesmen or politicians was, to blame for tlie aftermath of the war.