The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-12
EAST AGAINST WEST
The One Section Pessimistic, the
Other Buoyant and Confident
of Continued Prosperity.
The Future as Viewed From the
Stock Exchange and From o''.
Top Of Hay Stack.
Special to The Journal.

Special to The Journal.
New York, Oct. 1.-THE Financial
Age of Saturday says:
Out of the west come reports Of
large crops and ample funds of unre-
Taxed business activity and OF
prosperity which the country has en-
joyed for the past half dozen years,
and the east, after weighing these
mighty considerations which make or
unmake a nations welfare, answers
with lower Values renewed liquidation
and the prediction that ere long
the rest of the country will re-
Wall streets perception is keener than
that of the agricultural regions; that
one may see further into the future
from the floor of the New York stock
exchange than from the top of a hay
stack. The west replies in it's char
acteristic style, that Wall street covers
but a small area of these United
States, and to claim that it leads and
the country follows is to place the
cart before the mare.
Honest Western Wealth.
The west, with pride in it's vast re-
sources and in the knowledge that it's
earnest toll and great personal hard
ships, feels secure in it's prosperity
and only laughs at the nervousness Of
the east. ~~:
1t recognizes the conditions which it
knows exist outside of Wall street, and
is content to ignore those which dis
tress the financial community alone.
For that reason it's vision is limited,
while Wall street views the situation
from all points of the compass.
Nothing that tranSpires from Maine
to California or from the great lakes
to the Gulf of Mexico passes it's no.
tice; it is as much concerned over re-
ports Of frosts in Kansas as it is over
rumors Of the insolvency Of one of it's
own banks.
It is a mistake to presume that
values rise and fall at the will of
powerful spectators, or that f1uctu-
ations represent merely manipulation
of the bulls and bears. 1t is true that
there have been spectators panics
are short lived.
| The fall in values that has been
going on for more than a year has
been too gradual to be placed in that
class. It has resulted from causes
over which the stock jobbers have no
control, and the enormous losses, not
alone on paper, sustained by many of
the wealthiest and most powerful in
terests in Wall street prove beyond
the peradventure of doubt that it was
not Of their making.
| Bad Influences Spreading.
If precedent is to be relied on the
rest Of the country may be expected
to feel sooner or later the influences
that Wall street now feels, and there
are many who claim that evidences OF
a reaction are here even now.
Those who hold to this view point
to the fact that large portion OF
4 the liquidation that has been goins
on for months has come from the in.
! terror, which seems to show that Wal
street, after all, is not the "only blue
spot
The. curtailment in the production
i and consumption Of iron and steel ant
the decreasing balance of trade are no
without their significance, and canno
be answered by merely pointing t,
I continued or increasing activity il
Il this or that trade.
I The question then arises, do the de
4 velopments Of the past year point to
general business reaction or are the,
merely the result of surface condi
4 tons?
The word reaction has sount
which racks the ears and suggests
4 host of financial ills, but a reaction
4 from a period of imitation such as w,
4 have witnessed during recent year!
might after all place the country on {
more substantial basis and in a more