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

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England where lower interest rates
generally prevail, the return on railway
c2pital is-41 10 per cent. The reward OF
capital should be proportionated TO the FISK
involved. and it is manifestly tyraDnlcai
abuse of legislative authority to limit the
interest returns on the exploitation OF new
railway or industrial enterprises to the rate
currently received on old-established and
tested forms of investment The truth Is
that labor and legislation have been en-
croaching SO upon railroads that II proper
charges for maintenance were MADE mucn
of the present small apparent pront Would
be swallowed up. The Western oolector
saws that the railroad has ''Watered' us
stock; that its original cost is fully repre-
scented by its bonded Indebtedness, and that
the capital stock upon which it would pay
dividend if it could, is all fictitious and
represents no value expended. ms is true
perhaps in most instances, Dut is IL not
equally true that the Western farmer bought
his land originally at few dollars an acre,
and that its so-called 'unearned increment,
i. e., increase in value, without any act OF
its own, has been much greater,
proporuonate to his expenditure and
risk. than that of the railroad
of which he complains? According to the
census reports. the average value OF farm
land in Illinois, typical state, selected at
random, increased from s. per acre in 1850,
dCTc Ii lCUb, Sp- PSi siSiN IA
1870. Thus it quadrupled in value in twenty
years. Many acres of Western land now
worth $40, $50 or $40 per acre were pur-
chased from railroad grants, or from the
state or government, twenty or thirty years
ago at 81. % to 81 so per acre.
The st. Paul Pioneer Press prepared
statements in October, based on inquiry
and investigation in Minnesota and the two
Dakotas, tending to Show that the farm
lands in the Northwest have appreciated 10
value $500, GOO GOO since the close OF the crop
season of 1880. The increase in valuation Is
10 to 50 per cent and in some instances the
value has doubled.
OF course this is Immediately due to Supe-
rior crop and market conditions, but the
railroad entered the territory thus occupied
by the farmer and gave 4 new value to his
property. a value which it could never pos
sibly have obtained from any local demand
for the products raised upon 1t.
Because of this wonderful railroad devel-
opment and the marvellous cheapneSs OF
transportation, the European producer at
the mouth of the consumer cannot compete
with the American farmer 1900 miles away.
According to figures furnished me by Gen.
Horace Porter the freight rate here Is
triie less than one-half of that of England,
and Just about three-eighths of that on the
continent, while frSt-claSS railroad travel
is about one-half the English passenger
II, anu YET i'll 1iDOE anu SuIp4lCo JIG WOW
of operating railroad here IS vastly
greater.
The stock broker is always alert to ascer-
tain the facts concerning properties dealt
in upon the exchanges, and the character OF
the men who administer them, and as ! say
he seldom stops to read Il lecture or point 4
moral, but is rather inclined TO advise his
friends and clients to avoid such plague
spots, rather than TO try TO eradicate them.
The stock broker, if at all fitted for his vo-
cation. takes a wide interest in affairs :;
nothing escapes his observation, and ne IS
constantly on the watch for news and opln-
ions that may have bearing upon any 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
pectiye demand for their surplus abroad !:
he watches all legislative measures; he re-
1ects,u the past ana peers into the future
to discover all the springs which move the
money market, public sentiment and ma
tional prosperity or adversely. AS rule,
lie is genial in manner, liberal in his views.
generous in his nature, warm friend, i
good liver and keen observer Like a
lawyer. he must think on his feet: he must
be quick in decision, for he cannot wait for
public opinion to cryStalize itself after an
event; he must anticipate what that opinion
pires during business hours throughout the
| world is Immediately telegraphed to its
| great financial center3-the newspapers get
! it later.
The old idea that an education is of no
| value to business man is exploded in WEI
| street and in every busy mart of trade. OF
| course. Il financial faculty must go with 1t,
| as the mechanical faculty must go with the
| inventor, or the musical faculty with the
| composer.
1t is always easy to discover the move
ment of tangible things coming into and
| going out of the country; the custom house
| records furnish the data. But the dlspar-
| ity between the value of exports and I'M
| ports is not balanced or corrected by the
| Shipments of specie. The problem is CD
| secured 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
| ings, and by what is of more immense con-
| sequence the ebb and flow of stock eX.
| change securities. Unless these factors be
| studied and traced the figures of interna.
| tional trade balances will be misleading and
| indeed valueless as guide to intelligent
| financial opinion.
| thoughts have been brought home to us
with startling significance. y year ago the
financial world was beset with ''gorgons
| and hydraS and chimeras' dire st home,
| Il short corn crop 4 new silver measure, anc
! q new tariff bill that seemed at least tenn
| porarily to be repudiated in the November
| elections, and 4 stringent money market
| combined to produce 4 feeling Of unrest
| Abroad, the financial system was dl5tendeC
| almost TO the bursting point by an enormous
| lookup in Argentina, one thousand millions
| of whose securities were held in Europe
| discredited and unmarketable; and further
| by the dangerous and undue conversion o.
| floating capital into all manner of joint
| stock companies. The situation was ag
| gravated by the prospective loss of the Ar
! gentine export trade through the impover
| ishment of that country, and the diminu
ton of the American export trade through
the operation of our tariff legislation. A
this critical juncture the great credit an(
finance house of Barring Brothers Il Co
was found to be on the brink of abrupt fail
ure, and if ii had gone down with a crasl
the consequences would have been grave
and more momeatous than were those o
the catastrophe of 1866, when Overend
| Quincy & Co. stopped payment. But Their
was a master mind in the Bank of England
who stayed the rising tide of disaster. Mr.
William Liddcrdale, governor of the Banl
of England. organized bankers relief syn
dictate, which assumed all the acceptance
of the Earrings and saved the entire finan
cial and commercial world from utter con
fusion and dismay.
\ Heretofore in times OF financial uneasiness
each bank has consulted solely its own di
I