The herald., 1893-06-22
THAT UNAccoUNTABLE SCARE.

| Among the pleasant incidents attend
ing the late financial furry has been the
announcement by number Of business
men that they will take checks on the
closed banks for merchandise. This
shows the right spirit. The disaster has
been very much mitigated by this spie-
tied action Of many of our merchants,
who appreciate the fact that the present
difficulty ia purely temporary, In
week from today people will be wonder
ing how they could ever have been 30
foolish as to start in to wreck their own
prosperity. The feeling yesterday had
much improved, and there is already
talk Of resumption on the part OF sew
eral OF tho suspended banks. The fight
which has been maintained by the Los
Angeles National Bank has excited ad-
miration by its staunchness and perse-
verance. The First National Bank also
showed remarkable vitality in view OF
the fact that one OF the first checks 1t
had to meet Monday was one for $73 900,
which was taken out Of the bank and
put in a safe deposit box in the State
Loan and Trust company. The other
banks have kept their doors open and
are prepared for every emergency, the
Farmers and Merchants looming up
like a veritable Gibraltar, and increas.
ing instead of diminishing ite deposits.
The tide has already begun to turn,
and in q few days people will begin to
wonder what sort of madness possessed
them. 1t was one OF those rnaccount-
able incidents that demonstrate that, in
times of excitement, men are but little
better than sheep, which follow bell
weather. The whole experience re-
sembled nothing 80 much as thunder
bolt shot out of clear sky. Its sudden
ness impaired to it all its energy; it's
very unaccountablenesa gave it all its
power for mischief.
Now to what is this ridiculous panic
referable? Is IL not fact that this year
we have had the largest crops ever
known in the history OF Los Angeles
There is abundance OF everything. The
land ia fairly reeking with material
wealth. New enterprises in powerful
hands abound on all sides. There was
not in the whole of Los Angeles county
single note of alarm an indca-
tion that storm was brewing. There
had been no note OF either distress or
speculation. The fact is that there has
been no speculation here for years. 1t
would have been excusable If this furry
had occurred following upon the kite
flying of the great speculative boom of
1SS6-S7, but singularly enough we then
escaped without single disturbance in
our banking circles. Los Angeles her.
self had not known single bank failure
since 1S75.-elghteen years ago.
With crops of the cereals that have
never been rivaled, with new industries
epringing up on every hand, with rail-
way extensions that promise to make
Los Angeles the center of as great min
inginterests as Denver, with great wharf
newly created by the Southern Pacific
railway that promises to convert Santa
Monica into harbor of worldwide
celebrity, with the Cudahys, the great
pork packing kings OF the world, plant
ing a mammoth establishment in our
midst, with the declaration that as good
bacon and ham can be made in Los An
geles as in the world, with smelters and
foundries backed by adequate capital, in
! the immediate future, with the absolute
certainty that our varied climatic at
fractions are cure to make Los Angeles
and her tributary cities and country the
most attractive health and pleasure re-
sort 10 the world it is under these
circumstances that, in a moment OF
terror and panic, we start in to make
fools of ourselves.
We have done this Notwithstanding
the admitted fact that our banks, take
them all in all, had more coin in their
vaults than the most rigid banking
standards require. They were from 80
to 80 per cent better heeled than the
average run of eastern banks.
Then why have our people made fools
of themselves? This question is as
hard to answer as that of the celebrated
DIR. Samuel johnson, "Wby 10 fox's
tail bushy?" We wish we could divine
reason for the absurd course pursued
by our people.
There is certainly not ground for the
assertion that there was not as much
money here on Monday as there was d
week, month or six months ago. The
only difference is that. ct that time, we
had not become crazy. Simply that
and nothing more. There was some
excuse for panic after the collapsed
boom of lSS6-S7, but there was abso-
lutely none for the imbecile demonstra-
tion which has characterized the week
thus far aud which has occurred at
time when this section is as plainly
marching forward to great destinies as
has been the case at any time with any
other equal portion of the earth's
surface.
1t will not be long before we will be
heartily ashamed of our unlocked colt
ishness aud precipitation. Meanwhile,
we are not without hope that the vista
tion, which we now regard as subetsn-
italy over, will rebound TO our ultimate
good. We incline to the belief that the
rehabilitation of our suspended banks
will be as rapid as their temporary
downfall