The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1893-06-23
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.

To say the least, the present finan-
cial outlook is not r%eassuring. The
folly of New York and the Eastern
bankers in contracting credits at a
time when credit is SO urgently need
ed, will, if persisted in, bring about
most disastrous rcsults-results no
less injurious to the banks themselves
than to those who predicate their
business upon aid from them. The
inferior institutions throughout the
country-and unfortunately the best
of them-are initiating the policy of
the great bankers of the East, and are
assisting New England and New
York in their effort to drive the silver
sections Of the Union into bankrupt
cy or subservience to the whip of Wall
Street. Instead of meeting the ext
gencies of the times by an expansion
of credit and a policy based upon con
fldence in those upon whom business
activity, the life of a bank depends,
they are contracting their credits and
are alternating the men to whom their
own solvency is due.
Is this wise? Let the bankers an
Swcr the question, for we confess the
i~ncapacity of our editorial mind to do
so. Without attempting to answer,
however. we might point to a number
of recent lurid Illustrations. 1t may
be that the presidents of many Wall
Street corporations could give some
good counsel to the banks, but with
great hesitation, we beg leave to doubt
the disingenuousness of the advice
that they may offer. They did come
together and proffered some plausibly
wholesome theories to Secretary Car
Isle. The Secretary smiled and in
formed New York and the East that
they may look as far into the Attain
tic Ocean as they chose. lie prefer
red the dry land of the South and
West, and his confidence was vindica-
ted. Whenever New York has the in
science to try a pressure upon the
vaults of the Government, she will
learn to her cost that the patriotism
of the people is more than a match
for the tricks of Wall Street.
Under the stipging lash of their
newspapers, the princes of Wall, Will
liam and New Streets are shouting for
a panic, but Mcssieurs, the People of
this land, who own and dominate and
govern it by divine right, will not per-
nit a panic. They are literally too
many" for you, and before you know
it they will have taught you a bitter
lesson, one not easily unlearned nor
easily forgotten. They will snatch
the coronet from the brow of stately,
imperious New York and bind it
amidst the curls of a Western sister,
or they will wreSt her sceptre from
her hands and cOnfde it to the keep
ing of New Orleans, Galveston or Mo-
bile, the coming city of the Gulf. The
people will not tolerate this Oppress-
ion of NEE money-power-it is oppos-
ed to our genius-and because they
have submitted for many years, with
marvellous good nature, to Jay Could
ism, trustism, set id genus omnc" bad
ism, it does not follow that their pa
thence will sit upon a monument and
smile at wrongs forever. New York
and the East is playing a dangerous
game.
We have been met by the argument
that New York is not responsible for
the situation, but has simply taken
advantage of it. We do not care to
discuss the positive, comparative or
supcrlative degrees of selfishness. 1t
is not our province to do so, but it is
our privilege to point out to our peO-
pie that they have unlimited resources
within themselves, tDat there is no
reason within the range Of common
sense or logic, why they should be
cternally ''bctwiXt the devil and the
deep sea-" because a few people elect
to become candidates for lunatic asy.
lums through the influences of cotton
and stock exchanges. We have suffi'
cient confidence in the resources of the
South and West to believe that a mon
ey centre can he established here
why not at New Orleans ?-upor
which the people can rely in times o
need; and upon which the Government
itself might call with full confidence
that the patriotism of the South an(
West car easily stamp out the VAN
pircs of Wall Street.