The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-11-04
The Financial Maze,

II would be very strange after such a dis.
tucbancc of confidence as followed Tie failure
Of JAY COOKE & Co. were there not now and
then failures of noted houses that stood
through the first violent manifestations Of
the storm. The wind that wrecks many
trees of the forest fatally Weakens the foun.
dations Of some that do not fall before them
but afterwards yield to moderate blasts
Mortal wounds are inflicted in money
panic whose real Injury is not fully devel-
opcd for some time. So we take it that the
recent failures were of houses whose situa-
ton could not be fully ascertained until lia-
Utilities had fully matured, yet whose fate was
fixed by the early disasters.
Nevertheless, some welknown business
establishments that have fallen might proba-
bly, have been saved but for the non-claSticity
of the paper medium Of the land. For the
want of gold to hoard, people who have been
alarmed have boarded paper money, assured
Of its solvency, as it is guaranteed by the
Government. This boarding caused the
famine of paper, and people who owed
money, although they had an abundance of
property, having no medium to pay in, could
not pay. Property could not be sold for the
purpose, because if men had no paper mo-
ney to pay debts with they had none to buy
property with.
This is the source Of the pressure that fol-
lowed the failure of the sky-scraping firms
that had been building railroads in the mosa
and gathering in gains as with scoop.
We do not, therefore, infer from the en-
barrassments in some large concerns at the
North that things are getting worse. But
upouestionably they are not getting better
AZ fast as they should. The country mall its
nursuits Is not amenable to cessure for over
trading and extravaganza. The immediate
cause of trouble is loss of confidence from
tbe bursting of the gambling bubbles
amongst bankers and brokers Of the North.
But that tumbling Of the gamblers ought
not to bring down the business of honest
people who have neither gambled nor over
traded. Nor is it bringing them down; but
it is claiming them, tieins up their energies,
and just because of the contraction of the
circulation through distrust of the hoarders,
and from the same cause the withdrawal Of
a vast capital which had been employed in
| business and manufacturing.
| So what we now suffer from is the diminu-
ton of tie circulating medium. tits indeed
being slightly increased by the returning
confidence. But we must remember that
the diminution of this medium under panic
was immense. Under the old system when
gold payment was suspended the banks all
increased their paper issues, and that gave
relief. NOW we pay no geld and we have
no paper to FIJI up the broad gap occasioned
BY boarding paper. Is Llzr-ft
The only remedy available under the cir.
cumstaaces now existing Is the restoration OF
confidence, which we cannot look to see at
once. Good financiering, and faith, and per-
severance, however, will finally bring all
straight; and In this country it does not
take much time to restore confidence and
forget financial disasters.
But orr recent troubles have developed
defects'in our system Of finance which 1t is
hoped Congress will do something to remedy.