The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-29
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. Yssued Thursday. One Dollar Year
NECESSITY OF CONFIDENCE.

NECESSITY OF CONFIDENCE.
 President Roosevelt in one of those generous moments which are said to wield such a fascination over his friends has written a letter of congrat- ulations to his secretary of the treas ury for the part he played in the le- cent panic We have no doubt what ever of the sincerity of the Presidents purpose, but to be impartial in his judgment of the forces, which, when marshalled together, formed a success ful wall of resistance, he should send like letter to J. Pierpont Morgan of New York Unquestionably under the American system of keeping the fed eral government a partner in the bank ing business the presence and co-op- eration of Secretary of the Treas ury Cortelyou were necessary, but 1t may be doubted if success would have attended his praiseworthy efforts had not Mfr. Morgan and MT. Stillman, to- gether with the officers of the New York clearing house, counselled him and practically controlled the situation. In so far as the absence of letters di~ rected to those gentlemen tends to magnify the work of Secretary Cortel- you an injustice Is done history.
 One thing has been rhade clear by this distressing panic. which would have been more fearful in its conse- quences had market values been high CT. It is that it takes many influences to cause financial uneasiness. No one agency can accomplish it by itself. In the case of this panic it was in the making many months and it was not until those many months had attacked public confidence at every angle that the foundation itself began to rock. As we have said in a previous issue it is folly to ascribe to President Roosevelt the injury that has been done. The slump would have occurred had he not been in the presidential chair, or had another occupied it whose mental op- eyations were less foroihle and critical. At the same time, that his repeated at tacks upon dishonest capital, and un- scrupulous commercial methoGs-led in the end to a popular misconception of the character of all wealth cannot and ought not to be denied. The close req soner knows that his criticisms only hastened theNend and were at nc time the cause of it, but the average man Is not a close reasoner. By being con- stantly reminded that wealth in given instances is responsible for corrupt achievements he comes finally to look with suspicion upon all wealth as the source of misfortune to the many. There has scarcely been man pos sessed of an independent fortune who has not been considered by some one as a dealer in corrupt business meth ods The line has unconsciously been drawn between those who have and those who nave not, as the Scriptures separate the sheep from the goats. Those who have in any way added to this, absolute misconception of wealth must be counted among the forces which have contributed to tne disaster, and it is no exaggeration to add that the gospel of discomfort has been preached in this country, for dozen years, with an indefensible fury
 A little remark dropped by MT. Nor gan, who is not gabbler, whatever else he may be, is also Illuminating He said that if the depositors in the banks would leave their money alone conf dence would soon be restored. Perhaps naturally enough this sounds suspi- cious in character. Should the small depositors of the country follow the advice, of Lawson, for example, an6 withdraw their money from the insti. tutions of savings and stow it away ir their stockings they would do tht country and themselves a greater in. jury than all of the Wall street wreck. CTS could precipitatea awhile working to- gether. They are pigmy millionaire compared with the combined savings bank depositor The fate of the New York man, who in a fit of apprehension drew his two thousand dollars iron the bank only to wake up later at tht station house in drowsy condition and penniless, is of course an eXagger ated illustration of where carefully ac cumulated money goes under such cir cumstances, but the inability neverthe less of the average man to hold as fas to his savings as bank does is so vel established in human experience as t, indicate the well grounded fear o what will happen when men lose thei confidence. The only successful way t
 meet a panic is to resist it by riskinl more money; the way to encourage to do It's worst Is to take money out o circulation. As the cure for the ills 0
 democracy is more democracy, so tn
 cure for the ills of tight money mar ket is more money. This was the atti