The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-11-06


ing on the money market. The week
opened with feeling that lending had
taken a turn towards ease. A moder-
ate gain In the surplus reserves Of the
banks was construed as hopeful
symptoms and Mondays buying was
active and buoyant; but, when buyers
came to make up their loans, they
found. a very different money market
from what Saturdays bank exhibit had
led them to expect. Instead of relief,
there was n return to stringency as
sharp as anything experienced within
the last two months. Nobody seemed
more surprised at the turncmoney had
taken than the bankers themselves;
who, while attrlbutlng something to the
preparations for interest settlements on
November /. yet very generally agreed
that the stringency is not yet broken,
and that no marked elements Of relief
are yet in sight. The interior currency
movement is stu against the banks,
and while the demand from the west
perhaps shows some abatement the re-
Quirements of the south are. increasing.
Banking opinion very generally in
c!ines to the conclusion that the fall re-
turn to case win be much later this sea-
son than In ordinary years. From such
symptoms as are IN sight, bankers do
ing an interior business are expecting
little lending below per cent between
now and the first Of January Unusual
causes are at work in the money mar
ket, the breadth and force OF which It is
not easy to measure. Something more
than the movements incident to this
crop season have to be calculated upon.
Credit operations have been radically
Influenced by the industrial revolution.
incidental to the great trust creations
Of the last ten months Since January
/, corporations with total of no less
than s2,OOOOOO 900 OF capital Issues have
been organized. These transformations
have been attended with immense TEN
porary dislooatlons of capital. The
negotiations have involved large loans
destined 10 run until tile new issues
have beea distributed aud until the un-
derwritess have effected their liquIda-
tons, The national banks have doubt
loss participated to but very small ex-
tent In these operations, but many of
the trust companies, private bankers
and other financial institutions have
probably mnde advances to the extent
of hundreds of millions o dollars; with
the consequence that these credit re-
sources are largely withheld from the
uses to which they ordinarily contribute
at this seasou Of the ysar!5 in addition
to this special erupioymenvof credit, the
demnnd for the ordinary purposes OF
business has far surpassed all prece-
don't. The extraordinary development
in our manufactures. our farming, our
mining and our exports has placed an
extraordinary pressure upon the credit
resources of the country, There Is
limit 10 the extent TO which this sudden
vast expansion Of our credit require
ments can be promptly RESPONDED to. It
is not merely that we hayesno power to
expand our currency propostlonately to
these enlarged wants. Restriction falls
equally upon the much larger class of
credit operations that are carried on
without the employment Of money--thc
ordinary loans and discounts Of the
banks. which are placed under sharp
limitations by the banking laws. The
ability of the banks to lend is regulated
by the amount of lawful Money they
can control as reserve against their de-
poslts; and yet the activity Of the re-
tail trade and the increased require
ments for payment Of wages are keep
ing the greenbncks and gold in active
circulation outside the banks. Had we
an elastic bank currency system. which
would enable the banks to distribute
their notes under conditions Ike these.
instead of paying out their reserve mo-
ney. we should have a two-fold source
Of relief which we have not now--ln the
first place. a larger resource of retail
circulation. and. In the next place. a
lnrger ability Of the banks to discount.
1t thus appears TINT the prevailing
stringency is due. more than anything
else, to the legal restrictions upon
banking operations and to the artificial
regulation Of our currency system. How
far the injury from these restraints will
he further developed under the prcsen;
conditions. It is difficult TO definitely in
dictate. 1t seems only too possible that
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