Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-13

in anticipating payments and IN purchasing
bonds. tided our financial craft over the
troubled seas.
While we were receiving and distributing
our returned securities at panic prices there
sprang up in England a strong sentiment
against the Inadequate cash reserves OF the
British banks, especially the great joint
stock institutions of London. Facts winch
economists had long dwelt upon as serious
defects, but which were treated as abstrac-
tons suddenly became the concrete ques-
tions of the hour. Mr.. Goschen, chancellor
of the Exchequer, in his Leeds speech on
the 2Sth of last January, said that ne must
give utterance to the strong conviction
which he held, that 1.-The banking reserves
of the country are inadequate to the neceS-
stiles of the country, and are too small as
compared with the gigantic liabilities winch
our large institutions have incurred. Inc
Bank of England held the sole and ultimate
gold reserves OF the country, and they mad
not been increased proportionate TO the
enormous growth of the ioint-stock banks
which relied on the Bank of England, and
thus the pyramid of credit was inverted
THE STRUGGLE FOR GOLD IN EUR oPE.
Eleven of the leading joint-stock banks
held in 1889 only 10 $40 per cent reserves
against IL 9-1O per cent in 1879, and these
reserves counted as cash the balances of
these banks in the Bank of England. Mr
Goschen insisted that the banks must be-
come more independent, and that beginning
July they must issue monthly statements
showing the actual cash in their tlllS. ms
new demand for gold to strengthen reserves
was intensified by the alarm and consterna-
ton which seized British, French and
German tinanciers as early as May, that
Russia would draw out from the European
banks its immense balances. Then IKE a
miser clutching for what Milton calls his
''unsunn'd heap the great banks OF Europe
secured the world for the yellow metal.
By arbitrarily raising interest rates, by
premiums, by allowance of interest to I'M
porters from the date of shipment, the great
banks of Europe replenished their Golfers.
As George Glare, an Englishman, phrases
it, sit was struggle of three men Tor
blanket big enough TO cover only two
The United States came to the rescue; the
bankers of New York suffered little from
the drain, the stock exchange was stunned
q little: merchants curtailed credits little,
while SO, 100000 of gold left our shores for
foreign parts. The result was that the
open credits between our country and
Europe were of smaller volume than for
many years past.
The splendid spectacle of the great repub-
lie yielding up to European necessities
such vast sums of money almost on the eve
| OF an autumnal crop movement OF IN
precedented proportions, eXtorted the ad-
| miration of the world, and attested by
| proof Us strong as holy writ the tremen-
| dous resources and vitality of our country.
| Was asked to touch on this theme as all
operations for the export and import OF
specie are conducted in Wall street, which
! must also provide for any return flow OF Sc
| curities, but cannot tarry to elaborate IT.;
| indeed the story is fresh in your minds.
| and need only recall it. Neither can /, nor
need I. stop to point out how the barking
| interests of Wall street ramify throughout
| the country, collecting idle funds in one
section and at one season to distribute them
where needed in other sections and at
| other seasons.
My theme is too great and my thesis al
ready too long. l trust that because have
dwelt chiefly upon the stock exchange and
| allied interests as the most salient and
characteristic feature of Wall street, that l
| have not destroyed your conception OF the
symmetry of its varied interests and util-
tiles. Gentlemen, 1 thank you most heart
lily for your attention, and l hope that TINS
'fiyer'' will not be Improbable to you, and
| that YOU have at least lost nothing more
than your time by this venture under my
guidance among the bulls and bears OF
| Wall street.