The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-11
MUSHROOM FORTUNES.
Why Some Men of Millions Have to
Beg.
Gath Talks with . Number of Chicago
Business Men On the Financial Outlook
The American Money Problem as
Viewed by Them.
IooPYRneHT, 1893. I

iCOFYRIGfTs 1885,
Amidst stringency and failures,
which marked all the month of June,
sat down at the Virginia hotel, with
q group of business men, and put the
question: "Why are we having these
faitures?" liquidation" was the an
swer. reflected that liquidation was
the precipitation or condensation of
vapor, and that vapor was air or gas.
Liquidation. said another business
man, land also contraction Money is
tigh& The banks will not lend money
upon speculative securities, though
they pay per cent, like our Chicago
cablerailwsys-"
''Why win they not lend money il
suresof 9 per cent. p
Because the banks have to take
cane of their own customers. The men
who deal with them make their depos-
its there, borrowing their money and
making their clientage, require to be
taken care of, and they need this pro-
lection at present"
Are not your Chicago street rail-
roads essentially speculative stocks?
1f you mean that they were run up
high in the quotations after sudden
manipulation and improvement of the
property, they might be considered
speculative. The men who took charge
of them were rather more speculative
than the property. But these railways
whan improved were able to run SO
Eaanah further into the suburbs that the
extended homes ont there increased the
railroad receipts. and they have been
ablestppay their dividends finally, and
yet there has been slump in their
s+oclxB -extaaordinary to behold"
sfHpw much of a slump?"
'sThexaepreeaaEion in our local Chi
cagostocks has been twenty-five mill
lion dollars In the single month Of
May. The West side cable railroad
has declined ffty-eiK dollars a share,
the North side cable railroad sixty
eight dollars share; and in those two
stocks the decline has been nine mil
lions and a halls
Nevertheless, the deposits in the
baaaazxnR New York. said I, decreased
dn a perry few weeks one hundred mil
lion dollars"
''Yea," said one of my factors, s'there
have been failures in the east, too.
Big iron companies have gone UP, &C.
krDwledging that they had too much
planb for the steel rails they were to
make in the immediate future. But
the drainage of gold to Europe and
the ads.aterat5onsof our currency by de-
preciated silver were the main causes
of the si1rinlrage Of deposits in New
York. People were simply withdraw
ing their money and finding some way
TO take care of it themselves"
Another person spoke, saying:
s'There Is no limit to the amount Of
money that panic may absorb. The
very necessaries of life are shrinking.
Here we find wheat getting downward
60 cents bushel The Illinois Central
stock has dropped several per cent.
since the exhibition opened, and was
quoted in New York yesterday at only
90. Rock Island is down TO IL, b. q q.
to "A, Burlington to IS. Our cable rail
reads were selling in early May at 200
anda7, and now they are selling at 14s
and 200, fearful shrinkage."
Said I: Gentlemen, il you extend
yoar observation, perhaps you will note
that Europe at this moment occupies
the place America held thirty years
ego We reached the very lowest point
of orrr affairs in the spring of 1881,
when tie southern states put in effect
their theories Of secession. We block
AIDED them as far as we could, and they
ATTACKED us, and the world drew
band around us. Our banks went into
liquidation. The government issued
scrip, called ON the poor to subscribe
their hard money to the prosecution Of
the war, and called upon the rich to
alter their banks, SO as to become parts
of the great bank Of national issue.
We applied to all nations besides to
lend rs their money and to sell us mu-
pftions of war on credit. Does not
that correspond to the present state of
Europe, which is armed to the teeth,
and is drawing gold from all the re-
mote colonies and from America, in
order to set the finances of each nation
there upon the most advantageous
ground, so that war will not immedi-
ately bring about bankruptcy"
Said one: ''Such state of things
in Europe ought to send gold to Amer
lea, where we are in no danger of war,
provided that gold could earn valid
living In this country"
"Oh, no." said another merchant.
who appeared to want more philoso-
ply, SHAT does not follow. Gold is an
earning quantity, and goes where II,
SIS gold, is most needed. In times of
peace and prosperity you do not re-
qufEs gold, but when war approaches,
gold, like powder, knows where it has
q market. Though we. issued scrip
in: the war, we really paid gold for ali
we bought Hence gold appreciated
Ebove our scrip, and rose to nearly
goo premium over that scrip. But
when peace came the gold seemed to
tesa that its great mission was done,
and IN the course of about fourteen
years we resumed specie payments.
Tie gold that was with us in time of
war had gone to the depositaries of
gold among the German, Hebrew and
q l.