The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1907-11-26
Only a Senseless Scare.

. Washington Post of recent date
! says:
Now that the country has
staggered along under a so-called
panic for a couple of weeks, it
! may be well to pause and con
slider just what is the matter
What is the basis for the scare
that has caused people to take
| their money out of the banks
and hold it in their fists? Now
that they have their money.
where they can feel it and gloat
over it, they are beginning to
wonder what frightened them.
They are beginning to tire OF
losing the interest on their mon
Ley. Every day that they keep
their money out of active work
they are losers AS prudent per
sons they recognize this fact.
''Tney are as well off as ever.
The crops are big, the railroad
business is rushing, real estate
is solid, merchants are forced to
order heavily to meet local de-
mands, and factories are runring
steadily on orders reaching far
ahead. What, then, is the mat
ter? Some persons say it is be-
cause of the scarcity of money /
Of course, money is not as plen-
tiful as it ought to bet never
is. But the scarcity has not hap |
pened within a week. Business
is done on credit, and not on
coin. Credit is capable of ex-
pansion; it is flexible and elastic. |
There is plenty of it.
THE truth is that the money
furry of the last two weeks is
as sensefess a scare as a theater
crush or a maddog panic among
shoppers, This fact is becom-
ming apparent to persons of /
sound sense, and they are sheep
ishly prepal ing toput their mon
ey back where it viii begin to
breed interest. Foreign inves-
tors are swapping up the invest
ments which Americans afflicted !
with money-colic threw over
board. In a few days these
will be looking around +
and wishing they had kept their
heads. They viii be lucky if
they find as COOL investments as
those they threw over when it
was fashionable to become pur-
pie over an imaginary danger.
This is worth thinking over.
1t is distinctly injuvious to indi-
ana especially to the com
rnunity at large in which ndivid- /
uals have an interest, for the
people TO be boarding money at
this time, Money is needed in
the channels of trade, and it is a
lamentabIe mistake to Withdraw
it and hold it, There is no real
reason for a scare. The business
of this country are
e eater and more varied than
ever before. Vast preparations
have been made within the last
year or two to Increase Ameri-
can products in nearly all lines,
and the demand abroad, as well /
as at home for these products
has been on the increase. With
good crops, with large industrial /
operations running regularly,
with more energy, enterprise
and business sagacity than any
other nation on earth. this coun-
try is peculiarly blessed. Nine
tenths of the people who have
gotten scared have no idea what
they are scared about. -Birming-
ham News.
The above ideas seem to be
those he'd by the bankers OF
Columbus since the Scare
begun, as they, have been trans
acting business in the usual way
and their customers have not
been forced to suffer.
While acting as toast master
at the new Hotel Gilmer banquet
last Saturday evening Capt. G.
A. Johnston, president Of The
First State Bank, asse1 ted IN H
positive language that there was
not now, and had not been, any /
ranic. that this so called affair