The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-05
BANKER cLEws, VIEWS.
The Financial Outlook as Seen From
Wall Street

| New York, Feb. 3.-Wan street contin-
ues to move on in the old tracks and its
late usual pace. a temporary furry was
/ caused by the hitch between the Secre-
| tary of the Treasury and the banks about
| the negotiation of the new fifty millions
| loan; but, thanks TO the finesse of the
/ New York banks and trust companies CO
| operating with him, that breach lasted
! but for day, and the loan has been
| made an assured success, in spite of the
| partisan or demaCogic efforts that have
| been made in congress and elsewhere to
/ dlsCredlt the secretary's authority for
making the issue. Had the secretary
| been satisfied TO follow the syndicate
methods of negotiation which experience
has universally shown 10 be most sue
| cessful IN such transactions, the national
! credit would have been helped by bids
for many times the amount of bonds
offered, and the secretary would have
been benefited by much higher rates
of premium. In this very important
sense, the secretary must be held respon-
sible for an entirely gratuitOus injury to
the public credit; which, under existing
| circumstances, was the last thing the
! government could afford. Evidently,
! some nine-tenths of the subscriptions are
| made by the east. Very singularly,
Chicago has subscribed almost nothing;
w MN very pDlub6uly SuSRGSbo Vic QuCS-
| tlon-what is the matter at that i'm
portant center2 Philadelphia also takes
an amount entirely isproportioned to It's
| standing. The subscriptions of Boston
| prObab bly, do not exceed 10 per cent. of the
bids. Such small subscriptions as may
| come from the interior are likely to be
paid for principally out of funds resting
in the New York banks. 1t thus results
that nearly the entire payments, amount
| ing to close upon 500 600, GOO, will have to
come from the financial institutions of
this city.
This very significant lesson as to the
| dependence of the national finances upon
this center; and it should not be without
its effect upon the bank-haters in con-
gress who imagine it good craftsmanship
TO fetter and injure eastern banking in
terests in every possible way. Nor is it,
in the face of probable attempts to revive
| the silver agitation, a small matter for
the banks to surrender one-half of their
own stocks of gold in order TO reinforce
the treasury reserve of that metal. The
banks can well enough afford to part with
$50, 900 600 of their burdensome surplus of
reserves; but when that withdrawal is
made entirely in the form of gold or gold
certificates, it is something very different
from anything like narrow selfish mo-
tive that prompts the ready sacrifice; for
the silver struggle has by no means
reached the point of absolute settlement
so as to warrant the banks becoming en-
tirely indifferent about their stocks of
gold.
The success of the loan can hardly be
said to have had any stimulating eject
upon the investment markets 1t is not
likely to cause any parting with other
securities; for the new bonds do not yield
a sufficiently tempting rate of interest.
So far as the bonds go into the hands of
hr,v,1 =
for gradual resales to various forms of
financial institutions, whose funds are
now largely idle in the banks, and who
cannot put their money into corporate
stocks or bonds. So that the loan will
scarcely be, in any appreciate sense, an
element of competition with securities
actively dealt in on the stock exchange
One valuable effect will be to largely
restore the distribution of the national
stock of money to it's usual reservoirs and
uses. The treasury will have its cash re
serves and balances restored to theiI
usual safe working volume, which will
be a very welcome help TO confidence in
the national finances; and the banks will
be relieved of the large useless super
abundance of money with which they are
now burthened and from which their in.
terest earnings are suffering So far, the
loan means a large restoration of the
normal conditions of the circulation
which will be step towards recovery in
other directions.
In the stock market, interest seems to
be confined, for the moment, almost en-.
tirely to small incidents connected with
, individual stocks The main feature is
still the continued fixed underlying tone
of firmness in prices, which resist all
speculative attacks and yield nothing to
z momentary depressions of tone. The rea-
son for this, previously expressed in these
advices, namely the relatively light sup.
ply of securities on the market, receives
confirmation from experience. The ex-
cessive supply coming from the over-con.
J struction of new railroad some eight tc
twelve years ago has evidently been dis
J tributed into permanent resting places
and the new issues supplied by the yir
tually nominal constructions of the last
five years have scarcely sufficed to meet
, the ordinary demand for investment; and
hence the present relative proportions be
} tween supply and demand may be re
garded as unusually conservative. Under
these instances, and with such abun
, dant facilities for carrying stocks through
six to twelve-month loans on moderation
terest, the present indisposition to sci
finds full explanation.
The continued uncertainty as to what
congress may finally do in respect to the
tariff and the income tax keeps business
at large in a very dull and hesitaung 20
sition The Wilson bill, with the income
tax provision attached, now goes to the
Senate, where its fate will soon be fore
Swallowed. Whether defeated or success
full, the final disposal of the measure will
bring great relief by ending suspense
The continued extensive resumption oil
factories and works closed for months
past, shows that manufacturers have be
come sensible OF the close exhaustion OF
stocks in many branches of trade, and
that they now feel it safe to make pro
vision for the latter wants of the spring
season and for the fall trade. There
seems TO be no doubt that the country
especially in the interior, has now fairly
entered upon process of recovery; but
its progress must be expected to be slow
So far, however, this recuperation is only
partly expressed in the markets of this
city, where the prevailing pessimism
seems to brighten interior buyers out OF
their disposition to increase their pur-
chases.