The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-26
BANKER cLEws' VIEWS.
The Financial Outlook as Seen From
Wall Street.

wall street.
New York, Aug. 24-The general situa-
ton in Wall street remains virtually
unchanged. Both sides Of the stock mar
ket admit that. so far as respects ma
teriaI CONDITIONS, the outlook is good.
1t is conceded that the harvest outcome,
taken as a whole, is likely to be at least
good average, and that the money
yield to the farmer promises to show
an immense improvement on the past
year. 1t is acknowledged that the com
mercial spirit is healthy and hopeful,
and that the manufacturing interest Is
buoyed by the expec cation of an in
creased consumption. There seems TO be,
only in exceptional cases, any check to
home production consequent upon the
new tariff, and the danger from an ex-
cess of importations is certainly less than
has been feared, and not likely to affect
adversely the exports of gold, except in
the event of a smaller export of prod
ucts than il now seems reasonable to eX-
pect. The national exports of last month
showed an encouraging gain over those
OF a year ago, and the increase was due
less to larger .quanhSy than to higher
prices for many of the more important
articles. An advance of II cents in wheat,
of ~ cents in cotton, Anc an equal rise
in petroleum, compared with a year ago,
means many millions of additional value
in our chief articles of export for the
current fiscaT year, sufficient to more
than offset any increase in our mer-
ehandise exports at present anticipated.
Bulls" and bears on securities alike
concede these prospects, and there are
few who aeny tfe possibility that for the.
next twelve months, the course of the for
eign exchanges might be such as to bring
back to us some of the $l00, 900 900 of gold
the country has lost during the last two
or three years of adverse foreign ex-
changes. But here comes in an important
uncertainty which, more or less, accord
ing to individual temperament holds in
suspense the hopes suggested by the pure
ly commercial situation. The fiscal situa-
ton of the treasury is still an unsettled
factor, and absolute confidence is impossi-
BILE so long as such a sensitive problem re-
mains unsolved. on this the bulls" count
upon the certainty of our forcing or ma
neuvering our way through this difficulty.
The bears" magnify the danger and say
that we can find our way to a readjustment
only through further lessons of suffering.
For the moment, though called upon for
unimportant exports Of gold, and which
are more persistent than sanguine persons
have predicted, yet so far the syndicate
have compensated the treasury for the
loss. This relief has sustained the hope of
the hopeful, and they persist in hoping
on; but we cannot afford to ignore the
fact that this help is wholly artificial,
that in a certain sense it IS purely gra-
tuitous, that it may be discontinued at
any moment, and that it certainly must
sooner or later eomes4to an end. With
conservative men this is a position of
affairs that can only produce a degree of
caution and reservation; and not the less
so because, in the event of the syndicate
withdrawing its support the treasury
could and would repienish its stock of
gold by issuing another SJG00G.0 900 of bonds.
For another loan would carry the infer
ence that the fiscal disease is so stub
born that dt might run on ad infinitum,
with consequent perpetual borrowing and
all the arrangements that would follow.
All this is most unfortunate: and the more
so because it seems a needless prolonga-
ton of the trouble; for none will doubt
that, if the treasury and the banks would
formally confer, with a view to restoring
their mutual exchanges of gold to some
thing approaching the relations existing
before 1898, the gold movement would
fall into its old ruts and the danger Of
treasury drains would be ended. If this
cannot be done. the case Is hopeless; and
it is the most discouraging feature in the
whole situation that, at least so far as
appearances go, there is. yet no move
ment toward this form of settlement We
ought to be able to place some confidence
in the ultimate action of the combined
wisdom of the banks and the government;
but at present neither party Is giving
any encouragement to such trust; and, for
our part, we are unable to see how the
favorable natural factors above referred
to can be expected to make any vigorous
Roadway so long as there is no attempt to
grapple with this radical disruption of
normal relations between the two great
financial powers-the treasury and the
clearing house.