The 'Artistic Swindle' of the Shipbuilding Trust
A scathing editorial denounces the financial manipulation behind the Shipbuilding Trust as a 'bunco game' orchestrated by Gilded Age titans.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of the strangest disclosures of the commercial life of the country is that of the organization of the shipbuilding trust. The receiver of that corporation in his report to the court characterizes it as 'an artistic swindle.' But he might better have described it as a unique bunco game. The evidence of witnesses indicated a conspiracy to defraud the public for the benefit of Charles M. Schwab and J. Pierpont Morgan. The $30,000,000 of stock bestowed upon these wizards of finance represented actual assets of $300,000. It was expected that the amount of assets and the names of Morgan and Schwab would serve as a basis upon which might be floated hundreds of millions of securities. The proper place to inquire into the details of this bunco game is the criminal court.
“The $30,000,000 of stock bestowed upon these wizards of finance represented actual assets of $300,000.”
This piece captures the fierce local populist suspicion toward the 'trusts' that dominated early 20th-century American politics. It echoes modern concerns regarding corporate transparency and the disproportionate power of high-finance figures.
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