Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-19

| continent, while nrSt-claSS railroad traye
is about one-half the English passenger
tariff, and yet in labor and supplies the cos
of operating railroad here is vastly
greater.
! The stock broker IS always alert to ascer
tain the facts concerning properties dealt
III upon the exchanges, and the character OF
the men who administer them, and Us l say
he seldom stops to read lecture or point d
moral, but is rather inclined TO advise his
friends and clients TO avoid such plague
spots, rather than to try 10 eradicate them
The stock broker, if at all fitted for his vo-
cation, takes wide interest in affairs
nothing escapes his observation. and ne is
constantly on the watch for news and oDiu-
ions that may have a bearing upon nv of
the securities dealt in on the ex-
changes. He studies with interest
military and political developments in
| Europe: conditions of the cotton. corn and
wheat crops in this country, and the pros
pective demand for their surplus abroad
he watches all leg slative measures he re-
| fects upon the past aud peers into the future
to discover all the springs which move the
money market. public sentiment and ma
| tional prosperity or adversely As a rule,
! he Is genial in manner. liberal in his views.
| generous in his nature, warm friend. Il
| good liver and keen observer. Like 4
| lawyer, he must think or his feet; he must
| be quick in decision. for he cannot wait for
/ POOAIN OpLLltI " Il SAME ltStll ltE dll
event; he must anticipate what that opinion
| will be. Every item of news that trans
| pires during business hours throughout tine
world is Immediately te!egraphed to its
| great financial celterS-the newspapers get
! il later.
The old idea that an education is of no
| value tC business man is exploded in Wall
street and in every busy mart Of trade OF
course. financial faculty must go with it.
as the mechanical faculty must 90 with Inc
inventor, or the musical faculty with the
composer.
1t is always easy 70 discover the move
ment OF tangible things coming into and
going out of the country; the custom house
records furnish the data. But the dispar-
ity between the value of exports and i'm
ports IS not balanced or corrected by the
shipments Of specie The problem is OBJ
scured and complicated by the elusive and
unknown quantity of funds spent on pleas
ure by Americans abroad, by the amount of
cash brought hitler by immigrants. by the
transfer of credits or bills of exchange by
foreign capitalists to be loaned here by the
occasional calling home of this capital, by
foreign investments in industrial undertake
lngs. and by what is of more immense con-
sequence. the ebb and TOW OF stock ex-
change securities. Unless these factors be
studied and traced the figures of interna-
tiona. trade balances will be misleading and
indeed valuelesS as a guide 10 intelligent
financial opinion.
Daring the past twelve months these
thoughts have been brought home 10 rs
with startling significance. \ year ago the
financial world was beSet with '.gOrgons
and hydras and chimefaS'' dire AT home
short corn crop, new silver measure, and
d new tariff bill that seemed at least tenn
porarily to be repudiated in the November
elections, and a stringent money market
combined 70 produce feeling of unrest.
Abroad, the financial system was distendad
almost TO the bursting point by an enormous
lookup i'll Argentina, one thousand millions
OF whose securities we're held in Europe.
discreditcd and urmaTketable; and further,
bY the dangerous and undue conversion of
floating capital into all manner of Joint
stock companies. The situation was az
gravated by the prospective loss Of the Ar
gentlne export trade through the impOvar-
lshment Of that country, and the di!ninu-
ton OF the American export trade through
the operation OF our tariff legislation. At
this critical junctuTe the great credit and
finance house of Barring Brothers & Co.
was found to be on the brink of abrupt fail |
ure. and if 1t had gone down with a crash |
the consequences would have been @rayer |
the catastrophe of 1866, when Overend, |
Quincy y Co stopped payment. But there
was master mind in the Bank of England !
VINO stayed the rising tide of disaster Mr.. |
William Lidderdale, governor OF the Bank |
of England, organized bankers relief syn |
dictate, which assumed all the acceptances |
of the Barings and saved the entire tinan- |
cial and commercial world from utter con- |
fusion and diSmay.
HeI etofOre in times of financial uneasiuess
each bank mas consulted solely its own di- |
rect interests, relying on a suspension of |
the bank get after panic has burst with
al its fury on the commercial and financial |
community.
In the action OF the Bank of France max
ing a large loan to the bank Of England. and
that OF the Bank of England in combining |
the large j0int-stocls banks of London for
mutual support and to aid solvent houses
embarrassed by inconvertible
assets the method of cur New York bank
cps was distinctly adopted. Serious finan-
cial distur ances do not merely intiict losses
on capitalists and small stockholders of ,
institutions. but they diminish or
arrest the demand for labor of every va
riety, and whatever is done by the high
priests OF finance to avert panics is for the
public as well as private good.
We We're not parties direct to the British
financial excuses in South America and
elsewhere, but the interests OF financial |
renterS are so closely interviewer that a !
1amage to the web is damage to the wool.
Wall street has not been chasing rain
bows" in Argentina, but it had to help paw |
back to US by every steamer, foreign capital
was called home, a d liquidation, slow and
painful l1quIdatlOn. was the inevitable pen
atty TO be paid. The associated banks of |
New York by their prompt and energetic
lctiOn in massing their resources aud isSu-
ng clearinghouse certificates. and the sec
'etary OF the treasury by his ready action
L anticipating payments aud in purchasing
ponds, tided our financial craft over the
rOubled seas.
While we were receiving and distributing
,ur returned securities at panic prices there |
prang up IN England strong sentiment |
gainst the inadequate cash reserves of the
9rltiSh banks, especially the great joint
took institutions of London. Facts which |
economists had long dweit upon as serious |
efectS, but which were treated as abStrac-
ions, suddenly became the concrete ques-
ions of the hour. Mr. GoSchen, chancellor |
i the Exchequer, in his Leeds speech on
he 18th of last January, said that he must |
i've utterance to the strong conviction |
which he held, that the banking reserves |
I the country are inadequate to the neces-
tiles Of the country, and are too small as |
ompdred with the gigantic liabilities which |
ur large institutions have incurred The |
Sank of England held the sole and ultimate
old reserves OF the country, ana they had
OF been increased proportionate to the {
normous growth of the ioint-5tock banks
'hich relied on the Bank OF England and
hus the pyramid of credit was inverted
THE STRUGGLE FOR GOLD IN EUROPE.
Eleven of the leading joint-stock banks
ED in 1889 only 10 $40 per cent reserves
gainst y $40 per cent in 1879. and these
sSeSveS counted as cash the balances Of |