The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-09-22


pay at bank and, also. supplies to purchase
for the family. lie knew that on that day
the note must be paid and the supplies
furnished and has made arrangements ac-
cordingly. His money to pay the bank
note Is the same, and of equal value, to pay
it dollar for dollar. on that day as any
other, because the note can be paid at the
face value of his money. When, however,
he comes to purchase his provisions for the
family, he thinks that the prices have adj
vanccd, because 1t takes more of paper
money to make his necessary purchases,
and his funds are not sufficient to meet his
wants. The truth is that he has not so
much money in his pocket rs he counted
the night before, although he counted cor
rcctly and nothing has been taken there
from. His money has deprecated in value,
because its basis-gold- worth more,
while groceries. provisions, etc, in reality
remain the same. So long as we have an
iiredccmabic paper currency, an individual
may retire, at night actually worth a Ger
tain sum, and awake in the morning richer
or poorer as gold and stock gamblers, not
himself, may determine. This matter of
the change of the value of single dollar,
by few cents. may not amount to much
so far as an individual Is concerned,
although the loss may he great even to him,
but when taken in the aggregate. there is Il
fearful loss to the country. This variation
and fluctuaton, also, affects the prices
that is the value for the time being-of all
securities, whether national, state. corpo-
rate or individual. Experiencc-an expc-
Renee, too, which is the result of the wis
dom of observation-disclosures that an uncOn-
vertlblc paper currency cannot be relied
upon as medium of exchange, and yet
such currency is now our sole medium of
exchange. The fluctuations of paper
money, and consequent disasters, have
marked the history of all suspensions of
specie payments. A combination increases
or decreases the value of paper money, and
when it goes to extremes, either up or
down, these financial disasters necessarily
follow. So long as our medium of OK
change is liable to violent fluctuations, so
long will these pancs occur 1t may be
true that gambling operations may, at all
times and under all circumstances, have an
influence upon the price fancy stocks, -
but with an invariable currency, it can
make but slight difference with those en-
gagged in legitimate business.
THE PANIC.
we have, this morning, long additional
list of failures TO record. 1t was hoped and
believed, at the close of business, Friday.
that the worst was past that there could
be no more failures or suspensions that
confidence was restored and that, there
after, there would be pain-sailing. In
proof of the foundation for this hope and
belief, we were pointed to the closing sale
of securities, showing that some of them
had actually recovered their former posi-
ton, while Others were gradually, but sure
ly, regaining their lost ground. Saturday
came, and all of these hopeful expectations
were dashed. Failure after failure sus
pension after suspension, disaster after dis
astcr, took place and was announced, each
announcement adding to the excitement,
and causing additional failures and suspen-
sions. The want of confidence in railroad
management and railroad securities, caused
by the disclosures of the past ten months
taken with the fact that we were operating
with an irredeemabe and fuctuating cur
rency, might, and probably would, have
produced this panic at some time, although
it might, possibly, have been warded off,
and, taken together, might afford an cx-
PLANTATION of the origin of the difficulty.
With this distrust, and the natural change
in the prices of securities, day by day. as
gold iluctuatcd, no broker, doing a legitim-
ate business, could tell, from day to day,
the value of the promises to pay he held as
collateral for loans. If, however, all banks.
trust companies, bankers and brokers had
continued to do legitimate, proper bust
ness, the crisis might have been withstood
and the difficulty bridged over. When,
however, 10 an unstable currency and n
popular distrust was added the fact that
The larger number of bankers and brokers.
md some banks and trust companies. were
putting their funds to an Legitimate use,
he crash was precipitated and the whole |
world is involved in the downfall. |
Business men, of undoubted sonndness.
AVE wanted money to carry on their pro-
Der business, but they could not obtain it.
Their paper was good, their endorsers
prime" and their collaterals beyond |
question, but they could not be accomo-
lated And why. Simply because banks,
bankers, brokers and trust companies, car
led away by golden promises of golden re-
wards, had invested not only their own
apital, but that of their customers, in rail-
Dad enterprises and projects. 1t
Just as proper and just as
legitimate for bank or trust COM
'any to loan its funds to a railroad cor.
as to an individual or commercial
lrm, but their aid did not stop here. They
hdeavored to build railroads themselves.
II other words, they took the stock and Sc
uritleS OF railroad companies, furnished
he funds when needed to construct the
Dads, and negotiated the stock and securi-
les when, how and as they could The
Whole story is told, we think, by the New
FORK Times, in few words, when it says,
a substance, that there has been a rail
Dad mania, and the banks have lent large
nms of money on railroad bonds, to the ex-
fusion of the merchants. If these banks had
onfined themselves to the transactions
'hich come properly within their scope,
70 should have seen no trouble in Wall
rect They have practically gone into
le business of contractors, brokers, and
noon1atnro Tho t,rniantnra nf oil onrta &c |