The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-11
BANKER CLEw's VIEWS.
The Financial Outlook as seen From
Wall Street


Wall street.
New York, April 9.-There is still left g
good deal of hope both here and in Wash
ington that Spain will yield at the last mo-
ment, and if she wants to back down 1t
can be easily put down to the influence of
the Pope and the foreign governments urg-
ing her TO do so. The Spanisfih people only
commenced to realize that this country
was really in earnest about fighting when
the American consuls were ordered TO leave
Cuba. The countries holding largely of
Spanish bonds are not unlikely 10 bring
strong pressure for peace upon Spain. The
deferring of the Presidents message had
certainly significant look, as if repre-
senting the door being again open for a
settlement with Spain through diplomacy
instead of war. When the President has
exhausted all his powers for peace, and
there is no peace, he will be very likely
to turn right round and take equally as
strong a position for war, as the long
pending veXed question of Cuba must be
settled one way or the other--so say the
American people.
In the event of war with Spain 1t would
be very simple matter for the govern
ment to provide for the money needs, con-
and the high credit standing of the United
States government. AS il is not likely to
be an easy matter to get a bill passed by
Congress for an issue of bonds payable Tin
gold" as 1t would seem to make an in-
vidious distinction against the issue pay
able lin CON-" il might be better for the
government to issue a treasury note hav-
ing five years to run, bearing So per cent.
interest principal and interest payable in
gold M Thara
would be no difficulty in floating $1,000.
100000 of such notes at par. Or, instead
of this. there should be no difficulty in
providing for war expenses by taxation
without issuing any new securities. If
tax on tea, coffee, beer, spirits and stamps
is imposed similar to that during the Civil
war, which, together with stamp tax on
all business documents, will bring ample
income to meet war expenses, and the
patriotic spirit of the people, 1 am quite
sure, would not oppose such a method of
providing the government with means to
give our antagonist a good whipping.
Though standing on the very threshold
of great war, there is nothing whatever
approaching a panlcky feeling in financial
circles Our responsibilities have already
been carefully weighed II has been fore
calculated what will be the drain upon the
treasury and the effect upon our foreign
full conviction that we are financially well
prepared for whatever may come and can
maintain our ability to keep our business
interests under compact control and our
ind stries reasonably active. when our
navy and our soldiers are engaged in the
direful activities of war. Ii is a signfi
cant fact-which strengthens local conf
dence-that of the hundreds of millions of
our obligations held abroad virtually none
are being sent home through distrust sug-
gested by our situation; on the contrary,
Americans" rank among the strongest
securities on the markets of London and
Berlin. Instead of being called upon TO
return capital to Europe, we are lending
largely to foreign money markets, and gold
is still flowing TO New York, so much so
thai the Bank of England has, during the
week. had to advance its rate of discount
from per cent. to per cent. in order to
check the effiux. Under these circum-
stances the absence of alarm in Wall
street is not surprising, and 1t seems rea-
| sonable to expect that the declaration of
war would not produce any very serious
| further decline in the price of investments.