The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-09-14
NOT SCARED NOW.
Henry Clews Says Public Fright
Over Free Silver
Is Subsiding Because "The
Thing Is an ImpOssibility."
SHIPMENTS OF GOLD
To America Will Be Brought
Up to $45,OOO,OOO,
If Wall Street Regards 1t as
Necessary.
SHIPMENTS OF GOLD
CITVER nTIP a

New York, Sept. 14.-Henry Clews
says in his weekly circular:
The various interests centering at
Wall street continue to show the symp-
toms of a recovery of confidence which
have become steadily more apparent
for the past two or three weeks On
the one hand, the conviction has gained
ground that an unnecessary intensity
of alarm has been encouraged by tax
ing the gravest possibilities of the sit
uatiOn at their worst and making in
sufficient allowance for the counterac-
lions and preventions which a great
public danger always begets; and, on
the other, the shaping and drift Of po-
Htical forces are construed as 50 di-
rectly in favor of the ascendancy of a
sound money policy that the election is
looked to as ending the dangers of the
silver mania and introducing a new era
of confidence and of national prosper
fty. Concurrently with these assuring
tendencies, has come an influx of gold
from Europe which has enabled the
banks to voluntarily increase the gold
in the treasury and, at the same time,
has warded off threatened stringency
in money from which serious results
were, two or three weeks ago, appre-
hended. The amount of gold already
imported and on the way is about $27,-
UUU,UUU5 ana, aiLnOuSn large ana SUDDEN
movements of this kind are always at
tended with temporary checks and re-
actions, those best situated to judge
anticipate that the gold imports will
reach 40 or As millions before they cease.
AS this amounts to an important aug
mentation of the reserves of the banks,
the apprehensions of stringency are
virtually removed, and the loan market
is working steadily towards a condition
of ease.
The banks consequently are showing
more disposition to lend; and the dis
tress caused in commercial circles
through the difficulty in procuring dis
counts is steadily abating. One graft
flying feature in the discount market
is the comparative absence of any dis
trust among the banks about the COM
merciaI situation. The fact that mer-
chants have so well withstood the
strain upon credit for SO long a period
is regarded as evidence of the general
soundness of the mercantile situation;
and where any curtailment of discounts
is apparent, it is more due to the banks
not having yet been able to restore
their reduced reserves than to any
misgivfngs about the safety of borrow
ers- AS the gold imports increase, this
cause of restriction of credit must, how
ever, disappear.
the situation. They imply a real
change in the public estimate of the
chances of an extinction of the silver
danger They show that judgment and
calm discretion have gained the ascen-
dancy over an undiscriminating public
fright. They are evidences that a point
has been reached at which people un-
derstand that while free coinage, if it
were enacted, would be a catastrophe
beyond all estimate, yet the thing is
an impossibility to the practical COM
mon sense, the honor and the native
conservatism of a majority of the
American people. Thus financial opin-
ion and the opinion of business inter-
ests at large stand upon a distinctly
higher and more trustworthy basis
than a few weeks ago; and that change
has been taken with a elaboration and
a strictness of caution which will save
it against any relapse. 1t is under
these circumstances that the market
for securities has shown such q. marked
recovery in values and that Europe al
so exhibits a internal recovery of con-
hdence in our investments.
There is, however, a limit to the ex-
tent to which this improvement may be
safely trusted to go within the next
few weeks. There is naturally dis
position to defer large buying opera
lions until the outcome of the election
is finally ascertained, and until the
money market has settled into the
easier condition that attends the rehux
the fall months. Allowance must also