Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-09-18
THE NEW YORK SITUATION.
Special to the Register.

Special to the Register
NEW YORK, September 17.-Wall street
seems to be passing through a somewhat
premature eduinoctial gale Trained OBJ
servers have seen the signs of it coming
and have prudently held in their SAIL but
to the majority the storm has been unex-
pected and they are taken unawares.
The elements of disturbance are few and
simple but they are not easily controlled
by ordinary trimming tactics. Finance has
encountered foreign obstacles of a kind to
which there can be no affectation of in
difference. The African question has lost
none of its acuteness and may, at any
moment, become an element of serious dis
turbance at the worlds chief money CEN
ter The semi-revolutionary condition of
france and the continued agitation of the
Dfeyfus question are factors which impose
more or less restraint at all the monetary
centers of Europe; and these joint dangers
appear at a time when our foreign finan-
claI relations are surrounded with some
uncertainty, so that we cannot well esti-
mate the bearings upon our exchanges of
any adverse happenings across the Allan
tic. We cannot be certain that anything
now remains to our credit of the large bal
plus OF exports over imports; on the coz
trary there are indications that the return
of our securities has about liquidated that
balance, and we have for some time been
closely verging upon the possibility of an
outflow of gold to Europe.
Whilst these external possibilities con-
front us, the condition Of the home money
market is not assuring. The extraordinary
Of hoe
spending expansion of bank loans and has
at the same time increased the demand
for currency in the retail circulation. With
banking system that indirectly compels
the banks to augment their stock of law
full money in proportion as they extend
their loans, we are brought face to face
with an acute scarcity in the circulating
medium. The universal employment of the
working classes at rising rates of wages,
the increased holdings OF cash among
country retailers, and the rapid rise in the
prices of goods. have conformity produced
necessity for an expansion OF the volme
of money; and this need makes itsIf felt
at the moment when the banks of the in
terror are drawing their deposits from the
metropolitan banks in order to facilitate
the marketing of large crops of cotton and
cereals. Unfortunately, we have no effect
i've resource for. increasing the amount of
the money circulation in order to satisfy
these necessities; and the result appears
in a reduction of the cash reserves of the
New York banks to close upon the dead
line" at point about midway in the
usual fall effiux of money to the agrlcul-
tural sections.
This is not a promising situation. I'm
expectedly, we are brought to a condition
of things in which the national prosperity
threatens to be seriously crippled through
the legal restraints upon our banks and
by the inelasticity of our currency arrange
ments. Had our laws relating to note cir
culation been such as to admit of an eX-
pansion of bank issues proportional to the
wants of the crop movement there need
have been none of the draining of tho law
full money reserves of the metropolitan
banks which is now in process; and the
compulsory contraction of loans, and the
stringency in money and the exhaustion of
the reserves would have been easily avoid
able. At its coming session Congress may
find reason enough in the present situation
for far more thorough measures of currep-
cy and banking reform than appear TO be
entertained by members claiming to be
leaders in financial reconstruction.
What, however, most concerns Wall
street at the moment is not so much that
we are confronting a theoretically faulty
system of finance as that we stand face TO
face with a delicate and difficult financial
situation Two millions of surplus reserve
aid to 8 per cent. for call loans at the
middle of September are ugly and dis
qlieting facts. The situation comes so
near to a deadlock that there must be some
vi slding somewhere in order to avert very
unweleome conditions. 1t would be indug-
ing a frai hope to expect effectual relief
from importations of gold. The situation
or the foreign exchanges hardly suggests
such a probability. A fall in the prices of
securities, or cotton, or cereals might so
STIMULATE exports as to bring exchange to
the gold importing point; but who would
deiire to see gold procured at such a cost?
and relief could not come from such
soacce until It was too late to be of much
service. Nor it is possible for the Secretary
of the Treasury to afford any help to the
situation beyond preparing some $5,600,000
OF interest due on the first of October;
which, though relatively small palliative,
would be a valuable aid under the cireum-
stances. Much. however may be hoped
from the resourceful expedients of the
effectively administered than to-day. The
hedgling corporations which, pending the
recent extreme ease in money, obtained a
certain recognition among lenders, must
expect to take care of themselves; and the
reliaf from that resource TO borrowers more
entitled to consideration may prove to be
quite important.
The situation calls for caution, but does
not warrant alarm. 1t affords little reason
for expecting upward reactions in securi-
ties in the early future, but neither does it
justify any incontinent realizing. When
the complications have had their worst ef-
feet upon the stocls market basis will be
laid for a reSovery in values that can
hardly Hail Z result in very active ''bull''
campaign. Cpon the whole, a sharp
squeeze in enc money market would have
important compensations. 1t would check
certain unwholesome tendencies that are
being fostered by the extraordinary activ-
fly CT business, and would strengthen con-
fidence by moderating the drift towards
excuses both in industry and finance.
HENRY CLEWS.