Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-17
EUROPE NEEDS GOLD,
Therefore 1t Will Not Flow Back
Here to Pay for Crops.
A FULL SUPPLY OF CURRENCY
In This Country Now, So There's No Actual
Necessity for Gold.
A FRESH EXPEDTENT FOR INSOLVENCY

| NEW YORK, Aug 16.-Matthew Marshal
reviews the financial and speculative situa-
tion for to-morrow's San as follows:
1T grieved me nightly to find, on going
downtown last Monday, that my deliver
ance of that morning had been received
with some dissatisfaction by those of my
friends, who, in the parlance of the street,
are ''bulls." The younger and more irrev-
erent among them had the impertinence to
suggest that wrote under the influence of
a bad digestion, and that another summers
trip abroad, by improving my health,
would improve the soundness of my fnan-
cial judgment.
81 think shall so far accept the sugges-
tion as to take a vacation for week or two,
or at least until all danger of a recurrence
| this season of the hot weather of last week
has passed over; but I repel with indigna-
tion the charge that ill-health has anything
to do with the judgments expressed Oh
| financial matters. The truth is that ones
opinion on any subject depends on the
point on which he views it. Esop's fable
of the shield which appeared to be of gold
or silver according to the side upon which
the observer stood, teaches lesson of per-
petuaf value.
FoRECASTING THE FUTURE.
A man who, like myself, looks at facts
and events philosophically, intent only
upon forecasting the future according to
abstract general principles, will usually
come to quite different conclusions from one
who considers only the days market, and
buys and sells for eighths and quarters on
the spur of the moment. / have no hesita-
in hat do
the fluctuations of the speculative securities
dealt in on the Stock Exchange, and have
always disclaimed any proficiency in read
ing the signs of their prospective rises and
fails.
That my opinions therefore, should some
times come into collision with those of my
bull or bear friends is not to be wondered
at. The proposition which 1 endeavored to
elucidate o week ago was that the market is
overstocked with securities, manufactured
during the era of enthusiasm which pre-
vailed for the year or two preceding the
Barring collapse of last November and that
they will not be taken off the hands of their
holders except at a reduction from the
prices which have hitherto been asked for
them.
Barred UPON FACTS.
1 based my opinion upon facts, some of
which came to my knowledge confidentially,
as it were, so that did not feel justified in
specifying the particulars. Still 1 think
every one of my readers is possessed of
enough such facts himself to judge whether
l am right or wrong, and is under no COM
pulsion to accept nv conclusion if his own
differs from it.
My further inquiries this last W. ok con-
firm my original view, and /, Therefore, ad-
here to it. A great deal of benefit to the
market is expected, and some of it has been
already experienced from the formation of
the syndicate to relieve the financial dis
tress of the Union Pacific Railway Com
pany undoubtedly, by lifting from the pub
lie mind the apprehension which the i'm
minent bankruptcy of so great a corpora
tion was beginning to create. Any meas
ure which averted, even if it only post
poned the catastrophe, would be reassuring.
CAN'T SEE THE BENEFIT.
Nevertheless, fail to see how the stock
of the Union Pacific Railway Company is
worth any more intrinsically because its
floating debt has been gathered into the
hands of a syndicate, instead of being bar
tered about among the various money lend
ers of the country. If my friend Jupiter
Morgan is correctly reported as forming one
of the syndicate, he is not the man 1 take
his services. Modesty in fixing their value
never was one of his failings, and he is not
likely to succumb to it at this late date
The other reputed members of the syndi-
cate also have sound business views Of the
compensation they are entitled to, and
altogether l am quite sure that nothing will
be saved in the way of interest and COM
missions through their intervention. 1 ad-
init that the company's stock rose on the
formation of the syndicate being announced
and fell when the failure of the scheme was
feared, but 1 attribute the phenomenon to
the manipulation of operators, who under
stood the game of playing upon the
imaginations of their fellow operators on
the Exchange far better than 1 ever expect
to do
NEW NAME FOR INSOLVENCY.
] simply cannot understand how, apart
from the control which the possession of |
large blocks of it gives. any investor should |
buy Union Pacific stock at any price what |
ever. Indeed, this syndieating of the |
arrangement made in London last fall with |
the debt of Barring Bros. & Co., is only |
another form Of what, in my early business |
days, used to be called an assignment for J
the benefit of creditors, and which was in |
variably accepted as a formal announce |
ment of insolvency.
The abuses of these assignments finally |
led to the enactment of a law declaring
them void whenever they were made 'swith
intent to hinder, delay or defraud credit
ors," and under this law it was adiudged
that any provision which gave the assignee
the right to do anything with the assigned
property, except convert it into cash as
speedily as possible, avoided the assign
ment. 1 suppose the Union Pacific syndi-
cate will steer clear of this legal snag. But
the fact of the company's insolvency is
made none the less conspicuous by the ex-
pedient to which it has been compelled to
resort.
BIG HOPES ON CROPS.
Great things are expected from the abun-
dance of the crops of this country, and the
more or less extensive failure of those of
Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people
indulge in pleasing dreams of the wealth
which is going to flow in upon us through
our good fortune and Europe's ill-fortune
in this respect. First aud foremost, gold Is
to be imported by millions of dollars, to
pay for food purchases; next, our own capi-
talists are going to have millions to invest
in existing securities or in creating new |
ones, and, finally, Europe, besides buying
literally of our breadstuffs and our provis-
ions, is to be equally lavish in buying our
stocks and bonds
1 do not pretend to be infallible, and I
shall be very glad on patriotic grounds, if
shall prove to have been mistaken, but I
expect as the result of our good harvest and
IF Europe's poor one, neither large gold
imports nor an extensive buying of securI-
les, either by home or by foreign capital