The Cecil Whig., 1874-12-05
English Enterprise in American Stocks.

1t is customary to believe that American
credit does not stand we'll with the capital
lists of London. And this belief is based on
the constant harping on all the weak points
in American securities, especially by GER
tain leading journals. Well, as a sample
of how much truth there is in all this, the
Richmond Dispatch states that a gentleman
lately visited that city who represents the
American Bond Funding and Banking
Association of London" and that he sub
mitted to Governor Kemper proposal to
take up the whole of the funded debt of
Virginia, amounting to some thirty mil
lions of dollars, and to accept bonds for the
same running twenty years, bearing four
per cent interest per annum. 1T is said in
explanation that this corporation already
owns or controls fifteen millions of these
bonds, probably purchased for fifty cents
on the dollar, so that by means of the new
loan the selling price would be so raised in
the London market that the holders could
make neat operation, and by the new
funding they could get the entire loan into
their hands.
Without regard to this the fact of such
a powerful corporation existing in London
with so large a capital, and being confined
to operations in American bonds, is suffi-
cient indication that a great mistake has
been made at home in supposing our secur-
tiles were ignored and unstable. This
English agent spoke of having visited all
the Southern States in which trouble exists
about bonds and submitted similar propo-
sitons. And this has occurred at time
when no American banking concern would
deal in Southern securities unless stuck
with handful of them, when American
journals have done their utmost to discredit
these bonds. Were the efforts in the in
terest of the English manipulators -
Whether truly or not it looks so. Very
likely it is much the same with the sus-
pended railways, the depreciation being
kept up until the foreign firms gobble up
all within reach, and then new funding
loans raised which renew the credit of the
suspended stocks. These are old familiar
tricks of the English fnanciers, and they
are tricks by means of which limited in
vestments of capital are rapidly worked
around and turned over and over until they
become great sums and the owners million
aires.
The game is fair enough, since it is open
to all, only it is amazing that we Ameri
cans allow ourselves to be duped by the
outcry about suspended bonds kept up by a
pretentious but subsidized press. 1t is an
open deduction from the facts stated that
preparations are afoat in England for a
renewal of financial activity in American
investments, that being necessary to the
completion of the game. And in order to
make it work new loans will have to be
put in the market and taken up to start
the railroad fever again. For if that can
be done the southern lines may come i'll
with the rest and southern bonds be floated
off with the tlood-tde. We see in all this
fresh illustration of the force of our
former recommendation that great and
powerful financial companies be organized
in our leading cities to take charge of Ma
tional finances and to give a stronger tone
and bolder enterprise. The money is here
in abundance to do it, but the spirit seems
to be wonderfully lacking.
Germanto,en Telegraph.
We Practice the "Golden Rule in our
business, and do not force our goods upon
unwilling buyers. MCCRERY 4 BoULDEN.