Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-08-24

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Standing OF American Securities In M.
rops-How EUROPE views the silver Agi-
English Poiitics--Intsrssting Interview.
@. +. Huntington, the railroad magnnte,
rcocntly returned from u trip on the
European continent. In regard to mat
tors Of interest to us In Europe hc said;
II found everything In Europe looking
well, tho crops especially. Money Is very
cheap all over Europe. They are particu-
lar there what they buy. AS to American
securities, thoy stand well. But Europeans
have learned to be discriminating, and
their Investments arc made now only after
careful investigation had much inquiry
made Of mo regarding American railroad
securities. As never organized and built
road and defaulted ON the coupons I
suppose investors camo to mo I'm n feeling
of confidence that thoy could rely upon
what I said. told them, as ! tell you,
that there has been much recklcssness In
the past Oh the part Qf railroad builders In
this country, but thiS this era had largely
passed, and thought that much had been
learned here through experiences; that
there were good railroads and bad rail
roads need not mention the roads that
have been recklessly handled. You know
them. These inquiries were made of me
particularly In Germany, England and
Holland. In France there Is hardly any
thing held In our securities. There Is as
much holding Of our securities In England
as In the past In London, Pennsylvania
4 per cents were all sold out at l08. Chi
cago bonds sold at less than per cent, as
1 read 1t. There Is u good market for safe
railroad securities and for the bonds Of our
large cities"
The silver question Is being discussed
abroad a good deal, Mr.. Huntington said,
and added:
"They don't want us to run into silver
currency. told them ehat silver would
always have place in financial economy,
and that nincteen-twcnticths of the hu-
man race belonged TO the debtor class, who
would insist that silver should have good
place. There was no one In this country
! said, but that wanted silver TO have a
good place. 1 told them that the gold peo-
pie on our side were learning wisdom and
favored good place for silver, but they
did not want 1t to the extent that silver
should be legal tender. To the silver
men say, Il am better silver man than
you believe that silver should be legal
tender to the amount Of 325. They said
over there that they were willing to make
silver legal tender up to 26. There Is
more silver In sight, ten times over, In
France today than there Is In this country.
The same Is true Of England. Here man
will apologize to you II he gives you sill
YER dollar instead Of bill. II l wish to
pay hacknsn for q short drive at night,
would rather pull out q dollar Of our
daddies' than to try to hunt up bill. /
can be sure about the silver dollar, but 1
must have q light to make sure Of the
amount Of the bill. The people of our
country are rather educated up to the use
Of paper, although In 1887 there was lots
Of 1t that was good for nothing. Now we
are accustomed to using 1t, and we don't
like silver. But we would II we got used
to 1t, as they arc In France and England
Why, II Is common there to pay for 81 or
e5 worth OF goods In silver BY gradual
approaches we may some time get silver
on parity with gold, but not now.
II talked this abroad, and they seemed
to regard this Wow of the matter favor
ably. AS to the rs to / question, would
rather have the government stamp on a
piece Of silver on a rs to l basis and de-
clare that this was dollar than to have
1t on u "a to basis, for the latter would
be too big If the stamp of our govern
ment says that such or such piece of silver
is dollar-I am queer about these things,
but such is my viow-then, If the govern
ment be honest, that piece of silver is
dollar. But the danger is that we might get
into the hands of dishonest people, and
they would end up, perhaps, by trying to
make dollars out of our forests. Give us
good men In power and it doesn't matter
yIut ho tc nur 1ar
transactions are done by check The cash
is not actually handled. Ipay out a great
deal Of money year, but 1 suppose I
don't see $40, 900 in actual cash. Conf
dence Is the great factor behind the cur
rency question"
'In response to inquiries, I was very
careful, as Is my habit, to speak cohserva-
lively and cautiously. There Is evidently
a strong interest In Europe In our securi-
ties. But we have had SO many poor
things in Europe that they are very dis
eliminating there now. You cannot float
any second rate thing there now. This is
a good thing for our people 1t will mako
them more careful"
AS to tho recent issues of government
bonds In this country, Mr.. Huntington
said:
II heard almost nothing about 1t
abroad-that Is, especially In conversation.
They know there that our gold bonds will
be paid In gold, and that Is all there is Of
1t. There Is no better security In the
world than our government bonds, and, as
that goes without saying, there is not
much talk abroad about our bond issues"
Mr. Huntington took deep interest In
the British elections, and of the result he
said:
"There was general feeling Of satisfao-
tion at getting the people who supported
Gladstone out and getting the Salisbury
government in. The foreign policy under
Salisbury will be stronger and more stable
than under Gladstone. have great faith
In Salisbury, whose career have watched
with great interest. I think that now
there will bo development of commercial
interests I'm African trade. The govern
ment has just taken over tho British East
A frcan