The Winslow mail., 1900-08-02
The Monetary Problem.
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ana II IS toVVards an event of this
tbOt no ono 0tOOdiIH mOuOPip0

IN the city, although not long enough |
to remember the Black Friday of 1866, |
and it has been his lot 10 observe many
a sharp tWinge in the credit market,
and some severe collapses there; but |
at no time, not even in the months just
preceding the troubles Of 1890, has the
market seemed to him to display more
symptoms ofapproaching trouble than
it does to-day"
Since the middle Of February employ
ers of credit have been compelled to
lean upon the Bank of England almost
without Interruption. The power to
finance new undertakings, to subscribe
for fresh loans, and to conduct the ordi-
nary business oflife has been in no small
degree withdrawn from the market, eX-
cept as it obtained assistance from the
bank.
Each fresh creation of debt, or fresh
issue of capital by public authority
or corporation, has served to empha-
size the markets poverty and embar-
rassed position, until now we find that
great and widely celebrated war loan
subscription turning out to be so hol-
low as almost to represent hoax on
public credulity. Neither this huge loan
nor any other colonial or domestic is
sue has been taken up by investors, for
the good and sufficient reason that in
vestors do not possess the free means
with which to subscribe, and have been
plotting and syndicating and manip-
ulatlng to present a show of success so
as to avoid open failure. With each in
stalment coming due the Khaki loan
will reach a lower price, and presently
when the government has to confess,
as it must very soon, that it's estimate
of the cost of the war was totally in
adequate and misleading, and has in
consequence to appeal to the public
for further assistance, it may not be
able to raise 6 10, 100000 by Offering
four per cent. for it. But 6 100000 in
another two or three months time will
probably barely amount to one-fifth
of the amount actually required to pay
the war bill, and how is it going to raise
all the necessary money without break
ing our market in pieces is beyond the
wit of ordinary man to comprehend.
In these observations we simply give
an outline of existing market dangers
and probabilities. AS weeks and
months pass this outline will have to
be filed up in fashion so melancholy
that we forbear to anticipate it; but
it may be said now that surely Nemesis
has begun to dog the footsteps of those
who provoked strife Wantonly, and
plunged the country into war on false
pretenses' for base and ignoble ends.
We are going to be punished for this
war-the innocent and the guilty-in
manner the nation has not been called
upon to endure since the close of the
Titanic struggle with the first Ma
poleon.
Exports of the metal are, as a mat
ter of fact, being held back now be-
cause U1re gUveTnfnenU IS dpsUdrn1rTS
from meeting it's current liabilities. 1t
prefers to hide it's head in the sand, al
low its debt abroad to roll up, hoping
against hope that some favorable
turn in events will enable it to pour
money out without hurting the COM
merce and investment interests OF the
nation. But debts must be paid wheth
er victories are won or not, and during
the next six months the pressure upon
the Bank of England for gold to export
must become severe. Where are we
to draw supplies to meet this pressure?
None comes to us from South Africa,
little or none from Australia, and none
from India"
We can count only upon help from
stocks of the metal already in existence,
and there is no one market, except pos
sibly New York, that can assist US to
any extent worth reckoning upon.
Gold is expected from ST. Peters
burg, but ST. Petersburg is still en-
deayoring to wrestle with and over
come a crisis that is eating into the
very vitals OF it's credit institutions"
If, therefore, the Imperial bank be-
gins to ship gold that crisis must at
once develop, and assume dangerous
proportions in the public eye.
Germany, again, is almost as much
in need of gold as we are. New York
thanks to its banknotes based on
debt. double debt which amounts to
fraud on the industrial and business
community, on every cluAeH-Lldy NC
able to spare some millions, but only
at the expense of decentralization of its
stock market and probably danger
Gus crisis in Wall street.
Thus is it all round wherever we
look; each market has its own troubles
to wrestle with, even France, which
promises this year to be the strongest
credit center in Europe. We shall con-
sequently have to depend upon our own
resources to meet the advancing crisis
and almost on these alone. Because
this is so there is no measuring the
deadly destructive forces that may de
velop in our money market, but as we
have sown so must we reap.
OVERLAND STOCK WIRE.
r. Don4oJ IN One Chip2g0