Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-01-01
:|NATuRAL RESULT I|: S !!
Of Going Too Fast Con-
tro||er RidgeIy Says
Concerning Cause Of Recent
Bank Panic --Better Times
viii Follow, Ne PredIots.''Economy
Must Be Praeticed.

Washington, Dec. 3i.-W. 3. Ridge
llv. comptroller Of the treasury, today
gave out a statement dealing iargeiS
with financial conditions during the
year 1907. in which he says that THE
conditions which made this Crisis pos
sible. are the. accumulated composite
results of many years of.business. Ihe
whole world has been orer-trading and
expanding and nowhere has it been
more rampant than in the United
States. The reaction was inevitable
and though it might not have taken the
form. Of bank patsic had We been better
prepared with a banking and currency
system az we should have, the time
mas come when some or All must pay
| for our r-iniulgence.
! The total number Of national hahK
failures for 1867 is q and this huber
| has been exceeded many times in years
when we have had nothing which could
| be called q panic. The banks nave
therefore stood the strain OF the last
few weeks better than they ever oetore
and they are in better condition on Jan.
/ 1905 than they ever were alter Sucn
a crisis. The reports OF conditions OF
the natianl banks show that from Au-
gust % to Dec. 8. individual depos.ta
decreased but $142000,00o, or ABOUT "a
ner cent, while the decrease III cash
ON hand was but $4o,00o,ga and the III =
crease in bills payable and rediscoon'S
was about s42,000,00O.
"Since Dec. g. the central reserve Hrs
steadily increased and the disappear
ance of any premium on currency III
| the last few days shows that the strain
is relieved Most of the reserve cites
are I'D to their legal requirements,
many of them far above it, and the
! country banks as whole are in the
] same condition. Considering what we
have gone through with, this is a very
satisfactory showing. We have mad
| very severe bank panic. 1t might. how
| ever, have been worse and would nave
| been mach worse, but for the aid CIV
| en- by the treasury department ana
| some of the leading financial men OF
| the country.
| ..It probably never Will be known
| how much credit is due to few men
who furnished vast sums of money
| and supplied credit from their-enor-
nous resources in the patriotic effort
to stop the panic and relieve Situa-
| tons which might and would have led
| to tar greater disasters if they had
not been so promptly met and so skill
| fully handled.
From these facts in regard to the
banking situation, il would seem but
| 4 fair conclusion that the acute bank
trouble is past; that payments may be
and in fact are being resumed SO rap
Of, ON
and remittances may be now assured
This does not mean, however, that BUS
mess will at once revive. or that we
are yet over the danger line. The pam
ic is over and the worst is past. but
we have a long period of REIMBURSEMENT
and recuperation before US. Values OF
all kinds will have to be re-arranged
We shall have more industrial ana
commercial failures and probably some
more ba nix. failures. Many people who
have been imprudent will have to sur
fer the penalty Of it. but these Will be
Individual leases, the result OF partic-
ular conditions, and not due to the
general condition OF panic. when even
solvent concerns are unable to secure
funds to meet their payments. We
shall have to go through period OF
retrenchment and liquidation, but there
is reason to believe it will not be so
long or trying as it has been at other
times. ECONOMY and self-denial are not
pleasant, but they are most wholesome
and salutary for a country as we'll as
an individual.
We have been goh,s.too fast in 1busi-
ness end all classes of people have been
living too extravagantiy. 1t vii! be good
for all of us to check this. as we shall
now have to do. The period of readjust-
mert should, however, be shorter and less
severe than las been after other Dapies.
We have had a money panic as mR as
1885, but the fundamental strength ofscen-
ditions has enabled US to stand the Cur
tailnlen. Of credits and disarrangeme1lt of
domestic exchanges with far less dfSas-'
trous results than in 1893.
|. I'VE have imported one hundred mil
Hons of gold in commercial bills without
the aid of any finance bills which could
not be sold at all Our exports have paid
for this great infusion OF the life's blood
into our arteries of commerce. The un-
DERIVING substa ntial wealth of our indus
trial ard agricultural classes hes saved
US from 4 worse panic and will bring US
out Of the industrial depression which
will follow as soon we have 'atoned for
our financial, commercial and industrial
sins -.
I'm due time this will be brought about
It will not come suddenly nor in the form
of another speculative boom in stocks and
securities. but after we have paid our
debts and reduced our expenses, the grea,
resources of the land will revive our bust
LOT n 10 n n
enduring basis than ever before.
L cnAnXc ERaA AAlAG NllREc