The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1907-07-06
"PANIC" TO ORDER
POSSIBILITY THAT HISTORY WILL
REPEAT ITSELF.
Financiers and Politicians OF To-Day
Differ Little in Character from
Those Who were Prominent in
Andrew Jackson's Time.

In looking back at our Industrial
and financial history 1t is interesting
and may be profitable to know that In
1881 there was great prosperity, cspe-
cially In New York city. The diary
of Philips Hone, who was mayor OF
New York in 1926, describes that pros
perity as being beyond all former ex-
amples, accompanied by high rents,
vessels worth double, good prices for
ample crops, in fact, general prosper
ity. Two years later President jack
son was in the midst of his vigorous
wal against the United States bank
monopoly. Nicholas Biddle, the presi-
dent of that bank, was the great
financier" of his day, and he not only
aimed to control the financial affairs
of the country, but it's politics also,
for he attempted to defeat the renom-
nation of Gen. Jackson in 1892 and
the nomination of Martin Van Buren,
to be his successor. In 1888, Hone
| speaks of ill-advised action Of the
president In removing the government
| deposits from the United States bank,
which he said produced an awful
scarcity Of money, stocks declined
| greatly in value, and in December Of
| that year he speaks of a panic pre-
vailing and as times being "gravely
hard" Gambling in stocks, he says,
has been carried on by brokers to an
| extent ~disgraceful to the character of
the city" He speaks of spectators
| selling stocks ito the amount of mil
lions without owning a dollar Of the
stocks, betting it would fall and then
taking pains by every kind of lying
and chicanery to injure the reputation
| of the stock that he may win" The
bears of the Wall street of those days
evidently had the bulls by the throat
and were making them below for the
| time being.
But in the beginning of 1885 the
| bulls were on top again and there was
renewed prosperity and speculation
In progress. Hone speaks of the high
| prices prevailing for rents and COM
modities and the increased cost Of hv-
ing. "The rage for speculation in
| lduuS III lAbuS lSldIu, AC 3d. IL OlO
| IF the bubbles of the day" He tells
us of Abraham Schermerhorn as hav-
Ing a farm of 10 acres, three miles
from Brooklyn, which he had offered
for $4,000 four years before and nov
sold for $102, 600. Two years later, in
1887, however, the boom burst and
lots which sold at $3.50 were then
| worth but $50. That was in April, and
on May 10 the New York banks had
suspended specie payments.
There is a great similarity between
| those times and now. Andrew Jack
son was somewhat a prototype of The
| odore Roosevelt, they are both of the
strenuous type and President Roose-
| vent, like Gen. Jackson, is hardly sat
isfied without having a fight on hand
with some one. The parallel is COM
plete enough even to the fact that
both were mixed up in a controversy
with ladies of great political ambition,
for while Gen. Jackson had his Peggy
O'Neil, President Roosevelt has had
his Maria in the Storer episode, only
tlClC ID tulS SlCdI SLSC lOl WhllS
the chivalrous Jackson stood by the
woman in the case even to the point
of %disrupting his cabinet, President
Roosevelt felt compelled to denounce
the political activities of Mrs. Storer.
Will the parallel hold good in the
collapse Of the boom and a resulting
depression in the price of real estate?
Will President Roosevelt be able to
name his successor to the presidency,
as Jackson did with Van Buren,, after
ne had broken down the political ma
chine of his party and created a Per
sonal machine that he was able to be-
queath to his successor? Will Presi-
lent Roosevelt prevail, as Gen Jack
son did, or will the palallel be incom-
plete by the stalwart wing of the Re-
| publican party controlling the next Re-
publican national convention?
Whether poor crops and tight money
will cause a collapse of the present
boom is impossible to say until the
crop question is settled. We are now
doing business on a ten to one BASIC
that is the banks of the country only
hold one dollar in cash for v er $40
they owe their depositors. 1t will not
take much to upset such an inverted
pyramid and a great many more things
may happen nowadays than in Gen.
| Jackson's time. There are indications
| that the f~ar-seeing frenzied financiers
have sold or are selling their specula-
tive holdings and the retirement from
| active business of such masters OF
| finance as j. p. Morgan and Rookie
| Teller and Rogers and Stillman looks
to be a warning for other people to
take heed before the next financial
| eruption occurs. OF course, when a
boom collapses somebody holds the
| bag and these see their property melt
| away in falling prices for lack Of buy
| ers. Those who are out of debt will
weather the storm, if they ear pay
taxes and get along with reduced in
| comes for q while. But those who are
in debt when the pinch comes will
suffer great losses and many will lose
their all.
We do not know that Nicholas Bid