the code of our civil procedure. It is by arbitration. Let it be perfected, and let every welldisposed citizen resolve to resort to it. If this subject was discussed and made familiar to the public mind, and its advantages considered in all their bearings, there need be no difficulty in realizing the vast benefits it would confer upon the government and society. In regard to criminal proceedings, no greater difficulty exists. Let an officer be elected in each local jurisdiction, whose duty will be to arrest and hold in custody an offender upon the complaint of a citizen, issued by the executive officer, with proper guards and restrictions. Then let the accused select an arbitrator, and the executive officer one; let these two agree upon a third; if they fail, let the accused select another and the officer the same, and so continue until an odd number is secured. We have here a court and jury in the same body of men, and far better qualified to administer justice than any legal court in existence, because the courts are bound by law and precedents, whereas this body of men are perfectly free to make their decision according to the promptings of natural justice and the merits of that particular case. Or the arbitrators might be drawn from a list of citizens-say one hundred. The charge and defense can now be conducted in a quiet and speedy manner. Upon submitting the case, let a majority determine the verdict; let there be no appeal and no further proceedings in the matter, except, in case of conviction, the disposition of the criminal. 66 The great questions that have long been in dispute, and taxed the erudition of the greatest minds, involved considerations of law and not of justice, whose demands are simple and easily understood; while those of law are extremely complicated, abounding in subtleties and intricacies too deep for a single mind to grasp, as evidenced by the vast accumulation of decisions found in Reports," and carefully preserved and consulted by the most eminent jurists. Thus litigation is tied up in the endless mazes of the law. The substitution of a simple, easy, natural method would remove a vast burden in the shape of courts of law and their attendant officers and attorneys. It would save millions upon millions to the people which now go to support useless institutions and an army of non-producers who cause positive mischiefs far in excess of the negative injuries the people sustain in supporting them. CHAPTER VIII. 66 STOCK OPERATIONS, "RINGS," AND CORNERS. "Foul Avarice! dread foe to human weal, WITHIN the last twenty years, speculations in stocks, in "rings," and "corners on the various productions of the country have grown into a serious evil. We read of extensive operations in stocks and bonds, and suppose they are made in good faith. But such is not the case. Watering stock is a process not easily detected. The purpose is to obtain larger returns for money invested than could be openly charged. There is nothing gained in watering stock of a strictly private corporation, because no addition is made to its value; but public corporations, whose revenues are derived from public service, see the way to immense profits through fictitious additions to the amount of their capital stock. The people do not know what the charges should be, but are satisfied that net profits should equal current rates of interest. If one million invested is watered to five millions, the investors will draw five interests on the amount put in. If the capital stock thus inflated can be made to pay interest, its value becomes solid. It is worth in the market whatever sum it will pay dividends on. The great fortunes which have been acquired within the last twenty years in the United States were largely through this process. The people would not stand charges for service which would enable a corporation to declare a dividend of fifty per cent a year on their investment; but if that investment is multiplied by ten, thus reducing their rate to five per cent on ten times their capital, the matter seems to be easily arranged. If a laborer should demand pay for nine dummies of like wages as his own, he would be severely and summarily dealt with; but untold millions can be drawn from poor laborers by scheming capitalists on the same principle, with nothing more than a feeble protest. These sales are generally fictitious. As many causes can be brought to bear to produce fluctuations in the price of stocks, the chances of advance or decline are simply dealt in. Corporation rings congregate in money centers, and so manipulate as to reduce the price of stocks and bonds, purchase largely, and then manipulate so as to advance the price, while the real value is not changed during the entire transaction. Quotations are dictated in such a manner that those not in the secret have no means of knowing their actual value, and by false representation are induced to purchase at such figures as to sustain a loss in the transaction. Or an operator may make a venture and purchase with the hope of an advance, and watch his opportunity to sell. The operation of speculating in stocks becomes intensely exciting, as all chance operations always do when indulged in. Thousands of dollars will sometimes change hands in a few hours, and sometimes millions are "made" in a very few days' operation. For instance: "A agrees to purchase of B, four days after the date, $15,000 in stocks quoted at 93 cents, at 95 cents, being an advance of two per cent on the market price on the day of sale. The stock does not advance, and at the time for delivery A pays B the margin between the two cents on the dollar and the market price. No stock has passed between them. It was a fight between a 'bull' and a 'bear' for the margin. 66 Nearly all of the financial operations of Wall Street brokers are of a like character. Some of them involve immense amounts. One man makes a fortune and another becomes bankrupt in a day. Men run about the streets, into the 'goldroom' and the 'clearing-house,' their faces flushed, |