The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-04

A Review of the Names of the Various Panics Since That of 1ss7-SOme Cu- riOus Facts Dug Up and Suggestions Made.
 History selects the most appropri- ate name by which to designate f. nancial disturbance deserving place in the record of panics. Current com ment evolves suggestions; the f1ttest one survives.
 Sometimes the name is so obvious as to relieve history of the task Of se- lection, as for instance, the Northern Pacific panic,' produced on May 9, 1901, by cornering of Northern Pacific stock A panic like that one, as- sociated in everybody's mind with some ominous event, is easily named, but panic which is brought about through an accumulation of general causes, or one of which the primary cause Is open to discussion, is now the case with reference to the events of the last few weeks Is not so readily disposed of in the records. 1t has been found convenient in the past to label such panics with the years in which they fell rather than with events lead ing up to the crash. There was a panic In 1887, which is referred to in most records simply as "the panic of 1S37" or the crisis of that year. If was preceded by waste and extraVa- gance incident to great prosperity by over-speculation, etc, and was finally brought to a climax in the violent re- adjustment of the banking business through the retirement of the United States Bank. Then there was the panic of 1857, which reached its acute stage with the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company on August 24 London has called this the American panic"
 The panic of 1873 Is so called by everyone whi refers to the troubled times of that period, although the crash was precipitated by the failure of Jay Cooke &Co. There was 8 panic in 1884 consequent upon the collaspse of a wild Wall Street specu- lation, but this disturbance took its AcblllG HUH LlAS AellAAlC VI LAAS tONfN that had been most prominently iden. tifed with the bull speculation, and is known as the Grant Ward panic. The next serious disturbance took place in 1893, and was largely the ef- feet of the withdrawal of foreign cap ital from American investments owing to distrust of our currency system anC the fear of silver basis. This is in terchangeably known as the "silvel panic and the "panlc of 193." Ther in 1896 there was the Bryan panic.
 Tn 1903 J. Pierpont Morgan said tht matter with Wall Street was it's 'un digested securities" and there wa' just the phrase which had been want ing aptly and comprehensively to sun up the situation. Probably MT. Nor gan little realized what tremendous vogue those two words would have The possessed what Stevenson called that transcendental appropriateness which defies analysis"
 It was not until Thursday of weel ---leforex1ast, March IA, when stock plunged downard with a violence un equaled since the Northern Pacif panic, that Wall Street referred to tn present financial disturbance as panic, and since then several appro priate adjectives have been submitted The Wall Street Journal has referre, to 1t as the mysterious panic" Brok CTS have caught the same idea in ''th silent panic" and the "quiet panic. All three of these words suggest wha has been perhaps the most strikln feature of the decline throughout, viz the singular absence of explanatory in formation. On the very worst days with prices falling to 20 points be tween 10 o'clock and 3, 1t has been i'm possible to bring any really pertinen information to bear on the situation On such days brokers have mad the rounds" and returned to thei offices unenlightened. Men who's business it is to be informed abou things have had to confess that tine were unable to form connected theor les of what was happening in the mar ket. The imagination of the floo crowd finally collapsed. For whil rumors of trouble were eagerly seize upon dIlQ ClTCuldIeU lO dCCOuiI IL the outpouring of stocks, but as tn trouble never in any case, materia ized, such reports ceased to satisfy tn demands for reasons" Brokers hig and low have been unable to give the clients, information of any valu Brokers have seemed to know as littl as their clients, and bankers have aI parently been almost equally helpless Bankers have been as wrong in the theories of the stock market in the las few weeks as anybody. Hardly an two of the magree as to the compel ing causes of such heart-breaking l oxidation as has taken place.
 There is still another name for Standing before a ticker on Thursda, March 14, a banker, who likes to though conservative, said excitedl1 If were writing about this I'd ca if the Roosevelt panic" A friend WI heard it, replied: "Why not call
 Hartman panic? It certainly followc close upon the heels of the Harrima invsstigation.-W Street Journal.
 MICHIEvOUS GHOSTS.