The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-02-03
"Loans on Call "-Panics.

the women will take care OF 0ARhiooN'
Z: ."Loans on Call "-Panics.
The reader is no doubt familiar with the
technical phrase of Wall street ABOVE
quoted. These loans are made WIN 'no
understanding that they will be PAID "hen
called for. At all times, in active COM
n,arc;al communities, "loans On call " are
common but at the present time 1t is IN
derstood that loans are made nalaiy -
any other way in New York save Dy inc
hanks. This indicates good aeal Oh
feverish anxiety and much douot aoous
tba fnture. Men desire to have control OF
their money at every turn of affairs, in or
der that they may make the best OF the
situation.
This policy is in accordance with the
blindness of men as to the future, and their
proneness to walk the same path that others
have travelled before them. That path
ever leads to condition of unprepared-
ness to meet the revulsion which every
body feared and nobody is ready to meet
when it comes. Communities laboring
under the apprehension of monetary
troubles ere like ants whose local habita-
ton has become little warm from rising
Ere. All is commotion nobody is still /;
and we may we'll imagine that if ants dealt
in money they would make no loans at
such time save " on call"
When the crash comes, the anxious
lenders of money on call are no better off
than any one else. They may be infinitely
worse off. They may be left with ruin
ously deprecated paper money on hand,
or may, in the desperation of the hour,
have parted with it all for mere song in
gold.
These over-sagacious persons may be
yet in another situation not more con-
soling. They may have been, and indeed
generally are, "speculators %; men who
cannot resist temptation to acquire sudden
riches in that mode. One day they are
inclined to withdraw and make permanent
investments the next, comes one Of those
changes in relative values of stocks, OF
gold, or something, which characterize the
period Of instability and trouble in ma
tional affairs, and the money is called fol
and hazarded. This operation is repeated
as the rapid changes ensue; and the ope.
rator, if he has survived the dangers
which SO beset the path of speculation
finds when the crash comes that his ven.
lures have but taken him to the high.
water mark of initiation, that he is only
floating in an oceaH of bubbles, and if he
does not burst with them he will be one
of the lucky few who escape the general
doom.
Money revulsions and panics have been
ever recurring in all commercial nations
This country has had its full share; and
yet society never improves upon its expe'
rience. Cupidity and greed blind man.
kind. It is agreeable to carry a large
amount of aggregate wealth, though it be
merely nominal, and men in the midst O
the financial storm clutch at chances to &C,
cumulste with avidity. They begin ever
to look at the rainbow with unusual int
rest, having q growing impression tina
there are many kegs of gold at either enc
of it. Vanity and avarice take possession
of them, and they lose their better iudg
ments and discard oil the experiences o
the past. -. 4, ss.. ~ Isl
Now, what is best in oil times is best a
time of pressure. TO be cautious to as
sumo no obligations you cannot in all hu.
man probability meet-to live economi
cally-to be Industrious Ito conflde il
your neighbor-to avoid speculation
live, in short, the life of a Christian gen
tleman. The man who so lives will come
ont best. IF some of his neighbors gather
up mora money in the crisis, he can al
least have the consolation of clear
conscience, which some who have amassed
their hundreds Of thousands would give al
their wealth to possess. S = -r gs
The practice Of honest and regular deal
ings at sucha time would avoid a vast deal
of distress. The withdrawal of money
from the support Of ordinary industry fol
speculative purposes Expresses everybody,
while the great bulk Of money so invested
purchases for its owners little else than
disappointment and remorse. After the
storm has passed, how many who were in.
dependent and wealthy before, cry ont
ooh, if I had only loaned my money to my
sthonest and industrious neighbors upon
"landed security-nay, even upon the
"pledge of their own honor, how much
"better off I should be. They would have
ssbeen sayed from embarrassment, posi-
"bly ruin, and should now be still indie
pendent; whereas have thrown my
ssWealth into that unreimbursing sea which
!" lis the receptacle of all vainly and vicious
SLY wasted fortunes"
There are mutual laws of morality and
Christianity which, if followed in COM
munity, will blunt the force Of misfortune
or altogether turn it away. Ifmen but!
respect these mutual relations they
strengthen the community-sustaip tho