The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-23
INFLOW OF GOLD.
Treasurer Roberts Tells Bank
ers of Its Effect.

San Francisco, Oct 23.-The closing
day of the American Bankers conven-
ton commenced with prayer by the
Rev. Bradford Leavitt, after which the
calling of states was resumed and state
mentS of natural advantages and finan-
cial and agricultural prosperity were re-
cited by the delegates from their respect
tive sections. J. b. Finley president of
the Fifth National bank of Pittsburg,
read paper on the Education of Bank
Clerks" and he was followed by Ellis
H Roberts, treasurer of the United
States, who delivered an address on
The Effects of the inflow of Cold He
said in part:
With due allowance then for con-
trary influences, how far and in what
direction is the vast inflow of the yell
low metal carrying US? The blind may
see that in the past five years business
has been expanded in some directions
in an unparalleled degree. Credit has
naturally been multiplied at least to
four times the amount of cash added to
our supply. The exploitation of gigan-
tic industrial corporations ran on at a
dangerous speed, fortunately to exhaust
itself by it's own excesseS. Promotion of
stocks and bonds is not industry: it is
speculation, and that finds help and
impetus in imitation. In that way the
inflow of gold has magnified if not
wholly caused the frenzy and the excess
seS in industrial securities. Those who
have climbed too high into the realm of
descent, unlike that to Avernus. is not
smooth and pleasant. The promoter who
has failed to distribute his stocks and
bonds may be punished, and those who
have petted his schemes may suffer.
But a shrinking of inflated securities to
their value is not public calamity. In
dividuals may be crippled, industry and
enterprise may have to rest on their
oars. Our financial system can not tot
ter, much less be wrecked. Undue IA
hPpn shown nv
banks to promoters, but they are cor
recting their blunders and looking out
for more healthful business.
Prices of commodities have undoubt-
edly been borne upward by the infia-
tion. Special influences have affected
iron; Bessemer pig which was $10.25 in
August, 1898, cost $21.75 at the same
time in 1903; steel billets in the same
interval have risen from $14.75 to $34;
No red winter wheat which was IA
became T415; mess pork from 1915
jumped to $18.25, and family beef from
$11.5O to SIS: cotton from Ills ad-
vanced to 9-16; Ohio fleece wool fell
from 2S to 27.
"T3y index numbers, the advance of
all commodities has been from $76.S08 to
s97. $751; or 21 points. On full examina-
ton, the Employers association of Chi
cago finds that the cost of living in this
country has increased Is per cent IN
five years. Carroll D. Wright, head of
the bureau of labor. with all the data
of the anthracite coal commission, de-
clares the advance to be from is to II
per cent These figures may be accepted
as authoritative.
Advance in wages follows increase III
cost of living. In recent years 1t has
come fast and strong. Large railway
companies and other corporations nave
added fifteen per cent at one step to
wages paid, to meet the recoG lfzed ad-
vance in cost of living The drift had
/ been downward in wages from 1893 to
1898: since it has been steadily upward.
| in cost of living. The general average
safely be stated at from fifteen to twen-
ty per cent. Persons with fixed incomes
/ are burdened with the heavier cost q
living without any offset, as they have
the benefit of a fall in prices or COM
4 modities, when that occurs.
when wages go up, the purchasing
power of those who earn them rises IN
/ equal measure. This process AFFECTS
prices of commodities, and adds aiways
/ to the consumption which again give
impetus to production and trade.
mo one can deny that the golden in
flow contributes to the currency a share
growing more rapidly than the total
| circulation, ali at parity; that it lifts
prices and wages, incites activity in in
dustry and trade, and pushes enterprise
forward, while it also tempts to undue
imitation OF commercial and stock job
+ bling credit
How do these influences bear upon
our world relations? First of all our
SURPRISING wealth in gold has placed
our national credit on a plane abovs
that of all other countries. and never De-
fore held by that of any government.
/ British consols bearing 21z per cent in
terest, long the foremost type of credit,
have recently sold below 81, while con-