The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-09-04
SIGNS OF COMING DAWN.

Saturdays bank statement in New York
showed gain of So, 170,O 600 in the reserve
and reduction of So. 43S 600 in the loans,
thus indicating a con traction of the liabil-
tiles OF the customers of the banks. to-
gether with an increase in the strength of
the institutions themselves. a few more
such statements will enable the banks to
call in their clearinghouse certificates and
to resume their usual accommodation to
their dealers. 1t may be noted, as an in
dicatiOn of reviving BUSINESS here, that
the San Francisco bank cleariDgs for the
week ending Saturday showed an increase
of So, $4,000 over the elearings of the pre-
viOus week; in other words, there was 80
per cent more business done in the week
ending September than there was in the
week ending. August 90.
Financial writers continue to exhaust
their ingenuity in endeavoring to discover
cause for the recent depression. 1t is
the puzzle of the age. Financial crises al
ways arise from the same cause-want of
confidence. But it is generally possible to
explain what caused the want of conf
dence. 1t generally springs from the reac-
ton following a speculative boom, or from
war with underlined prospects, or from
the failure of such institutions as banks in
which people have placed trust, or from a
wholesale crop failure, or from the substi-
tuition OF metallic currency by a paper
currency, or from a change of conditions
which renders business improbable. Not
one of these causes has been in operation
in this country. There has been no spec
ulation worth noting in Wall street, no
war, no crop failure. no bank collapses.
no disturbance of the currency except
what followed the decline in silver Bust
ness has been quiet for year or more,
and about as profitable as usual. The
great staples of trade have been selling at
low but still not abnormally low prices,
The honest seeker after truth is forced to
admit that he cannot attempt to account
for the recent depression except on the
untenable theory that the crash in Aus
tralia was contagious.
Perhaps clew 10 the phenomenon NAV
be found by study of the development of
extravaganza among the rich. Within the
past twenty or thirty years the cost of
living among the plutocracy has easily
doubled. Men who spent $4,000 a year
before the war now get away with S25.-
0O0 Thirty years ago ali ambitious young
year. To-day il he marries on $1,000 and
undertakes to live in the city. he will be
pinched. New Workers spend twice and
Tour times as much as they used TO do on
yachts, fine houses. fast horses, dinners.
balls, dress, equipages, travel, Jewels,
wines, flowers, display. They cross the
continent in palace cars which they own
they build steam yachts which are more
splendid ana swifter than the Cunard
steamers of thirty years ago. They give
banquets at which the flowers cost more
than the whole expense of the most
gorgeous entertainment ever given by
Queen Victoria. They throw their money
away so lavishly that Americans have
become byword in Europe Tor prepos-
ferrous waste. And while the common
alty-if such word can be used in this
country-can n OF vie with the "arstocracy'
In sGuandering coin, the man of limited
means. like the frog in the fable. does his
little possible TO emulate the OpuIent OK,
and throws away in weeks osteutation
sums which would have kept his father for
a season.
When reproached with wastefuIness the
rich man replies that he had the money he
spent. and surely he can do what he pleases
with his own. He can do nothing of the
kind. Each country has certain incre-
ment, which is divided irregularly among
its people. II chose who possess a large
share OF the increment waste it, so that it
ceases to fructify. aud to support those
who have smaller shares. the community
at large is so much the poorer. No man is
anything mure than trustee for the in
come he enjoys. 1t is his to-day, it was
some one elss's yesterday tomorrow it
will belong to another. Ii during the term
OF his trusteeship be actually makes away
with il, SO that at his death neither he nor
any one else has anything to show for it,
be has impoverished the country by SO
much.
A fortuitous accident lately brought the
East face to face with hard facts. If the
accumulated wealth which has been sup
posed to be there had been actually pres
ent there would have been no necessity 10
lean upon the banks. Liquidation could
have proceeded without inconvenience,