Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-14
BUSINESS AND CONFIDENCE.

The lack of confidence is one of the feat
ures of the monetary situation which is at
tracing the attention of the press. 1t is
bevond dispute that the immediate reason
why stocks are depressed, why some of the
leading investments of the country are
looked at askance, why some classes of busi-
ness cannot obtain discounts from the
banks, and why some banks have been run
upon by their depositors, is lack of conf
dence. In some cases this is the only cause
of the trouble, although SO far as the more
serious business disasters are concerned, they
have revealed more deep and permanent
causes.
This feature of the situation is just at present
enlarged upon by portion of the press In a
very monitory manner. Our esteemed cotem-
poraries are lecturing the public on its lack
of confidence. and exhorting it to show
more worthy spirit, in a tone almost as
pathetic as that character of Mrs. Burnett's,
who, when his wife rejected with scorn his
proposition that she should allowance"
him with twelve shillings week to spend
for beer, reproached her with ''Tha hast ma
confidence in me, Lizer-Jane-tha hast ma
confidence" 1t is true that the lack of con-
tidence may put solvent business firms to
much inconvenience, and that the country
has exactly as much real wealth as it had
before any monetary troubles were ex-
perienced. These facts show the foolishness
of misplaced distrust and unfounded panics;
but they do not prove that the lack of conf
dence is the Only cause of business
troubles.
As an evidence that there is money
enough but that it is kept out of the market
by a lack of confidence, the New York
Herald notes that the city of Brooklyn's
new per cent loan was recently bought up
at handsome premium. This proves that
there is money enough for investment; but
it also proves that there is plenty of conf
dence in certain investments. Another case
of the same sort occurred in this city the
other day, when the stock of one of the
leading banks was sold at the highest price
present rate of dividend makes it little
more than 81 per cent investment.
Real estate in this city, also, which
has not been pushed to inflated values still
finds money enough. These things show
that the public has a good deal of conf
dence. In these investments people know
that they will not be juggled out of their
money by manipulations or squeezes; that
the investments are unwatered and that the
assets of financial institutions have not been
used to float corporate or political adven-
turers. In such investments, confidence is
unshaken.
1t is we'll to remember that while the lack
of confidence has caused every panic from
the bursting of the South Sea bubble down,
there is reason in the inquiry how far the
lack of confidence was justified. In the
first example just mentioned, it would
plainly have been better if the lack of con-
fidence had been developed at the beginning
instead of at the end of the bubble. The
present monetary stringency began in the
stock market, and when we recall the trust
bubbles, the operations of the corporate
kings, the dividends on borrowed money
and the other means by which the public
has been feeced, there is some reason for
thinking that the distrust Of that
field of investments is not altogether mis-
placed. The best way to create confidence
is to have financial interests so managed as
to prove themselves worthy of it. We will
wager that the bank in Philadelphia which
recently paid out its funds to depositors un-
til they begged it to take back their depos-
its, like the bank in this city whose stock
sold last week at the highest figure ever
known, have no reason to complain of the
lack of confidence.
1t is foolish and injurious to display
lack of confidence of solvent and legitimate
business; but wherever that spirit appears 1t
will soon correct itself. Business houses
that have kept themselves clear from specu-
lation and initiation can be relied on to prove
their title to the confidence of the public.
But in view of some of the methods by
which corporate management and stock
operations have been connected, it is quite
possible that general and discriminating
lack of confidence in such things may prove
a healthy and much-needed corrective.