Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-04-08
CAUSE OF FINANCIAL CRISIS.
Was Not Due Until 1910. but Was
Delibf rateiy Forced Upon 1907.
/ New York American.l J.

=
Mos conspicuous of all the hap
penings in the financial world during
4 the past year were the attempts made
by men in high positions to mtslead
the general public as to the true
cause or the collapse OF securities and
the slowing up of business. A crisis
III business was developing, and had
matters been permitted to take their
course Il, would have reached an acute
stage In about three years from now.
1t was deliberately and maliciously
precipitated ahead Of time. Because
OF that 1t has not been true crisis,
and the recovery from the present
,nSSistress should be swift. The weak
sAypots that are eliminated In the real
panic Will not be entirely cleaned
out, but perhaps the remarkable
j wealth OF the country will cure the
evil and permit business to be run
for another long period without seri-
GUS interruption. y - s.i
The trouble In business has been
due chiefly to the fact that the world
has produced In, the last twenty
years more gold than was produced
In all the years of human history
= preceding. The result has been
worldwide expansion of credit, and
credit, when 1t starts to grow, must
keep growing or collapse. Inorder
to have prevented q collapse the out
put OF gold would have to keep on
increasing In the same ratio, and
such thing was physica, imp ossi-
btlity. The whole world Is going on
y. gold standard as result Of this
production of gold. The demand for
the metal became far greater than
the supply, In the first few years OF
excitement prices advanced to keep
space with the cheapening of gold.
In the past year they have been
marked back In an attempt to ad-
just them to the advance in the price
of gold.
The balance Of trade has turned
heavily in favor Of the United States
in the last months Of the year, ex-
ports. Of wheat and cotton being phe-
nomenal and at high prices. These
exports, however, have drained the
country of its exportables to such an
extent that deficit of exports is ex-
pected in grain and cotton.
Anti-corporation laws we're passed
during the year in many States and
in some instances the movement was
carried to extremes, but in nearly
every instance Of this kind 1t has
been proved that the corporations in
volved were directly to blame. In
North Carolina where there was con-
siderable excitement, 1t was shown
that the Legislature passed the dras-
tic law 1t did only after officials of
the railroads involved had sneered
at the Legislature and attempted to
make a joke OF its committee. The
humor has long since disappeared
from the situation. In New York
Governor Hughes vetoed the two
% To-, -fo S<a1
knocking out many Of the drastic
laws passed in other States.
Early in the year the great rail-
road companies, under the leader.
ship of the Hill roads, began a scram-
BILE for funds to build extensions and
improvements. The total OF capital
actually issued by all classes of cor
porations for the year amounts IL
$500, and total of $2,-
102, $4,000 was authorized Some
of the leading railroads are in des-
perate need of money and took every
dollar that wGS loosened up in Janu-
ary. New York Central needs $751;
100000 and the Pennsylvania $780,
100000 Immediately.
Imports OF gold for the last two
months of the year amounted to
practically 100000, 900, being the
surprising feature of this movement
was that the United States could de-
mand the yellow metal at "a time
when all the rest of the world was
also trying to hold 1t.
At the same time the production
of gold in the United States has been
above the average, but the output
has been seriously curtailed by the
late strikes III Nevada.