The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-09
NO ILL FEELING.
What the West Thinks of Wall Street
Now.


William Allen White in Golfers Weekly.
Fifteen years ago in the West a land
boom swept men off their feet. 1t was a
borrowers boom. Men seemed TO grow rich
who had earned nothing and saved moth
ing, but who had borrowed much. Men did
not borrow of their neighbors, for their
neighbors had nothing to lend; the lender
was in the East The goose kept laying
the golden egg in the sunrise.
The company of Eastern capitalists"
sent out a young man who knew just about
as much about real values of Western land
as pig knows of holiday, and the young
gentleman distributed the funds of the
Eastern capitalists" over the territory
adjacent to his big gold sign. with almost
Judicial impartiality, to the first five hum
dred people who came into the office. Mil
lions of Eastern money was sown thus in
the Mississippi valley. 1t fell on stony
ground.
And then the boom collapsed, and for two
years, while the notices of sheriff sales
were running in the enterprising newspa-
pers in the little towns aforesaid, the rela-
tions between the East and the West were
intimate enough, though rather unhappy
There followed a time when those who had
been participating in the borrowers boom
were trying to find out why they We're not
rich on other peoples money. They got
the wrong idea about it, thought that the
Eastern capitalists who were trying TO col
lect their dues were really trying TO wiring
hard-earned profits from honest yeo-
manry, and things were said on both sides
which should be forgotten; because a man
is no better for recalling that he is a fool.
and no happier for recollecting that he was
called knaYe
And then came a season of exhaustion.
1t occurred shortly after the statute of
limit ions a06 an fgaf l.t.@ Il
apparent reasons, the West ceased think
| ing of Wall street and Wall street forgot
| the West. And in 1897 each section OF the
| country became concerned in its own pros
perity. The East discovered the fountain OF
| financial youth at which IL could, and did
water its languished stocks, and the West
| fodder crops, and some important mines OF
| gold and silver and iron and coal With
| the discovery of the upland fodder crops
| the possibility of crop failure was eimi-
| mated and the prairie people grew rich
after their standards. And with the open
\ ing of the mines the mountain jewellers
waxed fat. The whole West began TO put
| money in its banks, Western banks grew
The deposits per capita" rose to an ex-
| travagant figure.
| The banking problem i'm the West now il
not to get the money In but to get II oct
| the rate of interest paid on time deposits
A wise and reliable borrower is more vel
| come at any Western bank window to-day
| than heavy depositor. In the country
| town where this is written. an averag,
| prairie town of less than 10000. the bank,
| hold nearly 80 per cent. of their deposits IL
| cash or its equivalent They do this no
| from choice but from necessity.
| The West has no particular animosit,
| toward Wall street now. Too many West
| erners have gone out TO lunch with tn,
| crowd on lower Broadway in the last fiv.
| years for any ugly feeling TO linger in tn.
| Western heart. But so long as the gentle
men who have paid the score of thes'
4 f.,... h.o Of In l.cotr nf h.. Nn<
! will feel toward Wall street a feeling o.
| sweet and unruffled Indifference.