The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-05
THE WORLDS BANKER.

Every little While some enthusiast
with more imagination than discern
ment. rises to tell how great the United
States is in wealth and world power.
usually ending with the declaration
that the history of mankind has never
seen such greatness. Then, just as We
are beginning to believe all the nice
things we have said about ourselves
comes a disconcerting analyst to upset
our serenity and make us doubt wheth-
er we are really as great as we like to
think we are.
For instance: Few days have passed
since the election of 1896 without figures
from Washington TO show that the
United States surpasses all creation in
wealth per capita, circulation of money
per capita, in aggregate capital invest
ed. in any of a thousand directions.
Because the people of the nation made
and spent money like drunken sailors,
II was assumed that financial power
unlimited had come to rest with this,
the great American nation.
As a matter of cold fact the French
people, small in numbers, without any
of the enormous reserve of natural re-
sources which we have been turning
into cash-and spending recklessly-
have managed to become the bankers
of the world. Stoddard Dewey in the
last Atlantic Monthly, tells how the sit
uation has developed in a most interest
ing way. When the panic of 1907 swept
the United States and threatened to en-
barras England with its demand for
gold, the Bank of France had already
taken in sail and was prepared to
weather any storm. Better still, it
stood by and gave invaluable help to
England Germany and this country
when they were all riding very deep.
France saved the situation, and France
was able 10 do ii, because the French
live UP to a national precept. when
you have four cents spends only two"
That was why France paid Bismarck's
paraIyzing indemnity so easily. and
that is why she is the most influential
factor today in world finance.
Nor is the thrift of the Frenchman
the only reason for the nations power.
The French, whom we are wont fool
ishly 10 regard as light-headed. frivo-
Ious and inconsequential, have reduced
banking TO a science, a moral science,
If you please.
The Bank of France is divorced from
politics absolutely and controls the cur
rency issue as well as the movement
OF gold Its first concern is for the
safety and prosperity of commercial
France. and it has little regard for
speculative Paris. That is to say, the
bourse does not control the treasury as
Wall street on this side has frequently
done. Again, the banks which invest
the savings of the people have no stock
exchange alliances; they are investment
agents. trustees of a sacred fund, old
fashioned in finance as in morality-and
they have made France great.
When last October's dynamite explo-
sion in Wall street was touched off, the
refugees turned to England for help.
DID England have the surplus gold?
Was the traditional strength of the
Bank of England equal TO the emergen-
cy? Not a bit. John Bull turned TO
Johnny Crapaud and got s16.o0O,O00 in
gold Then the Bank Of France dis
counted some $4,000, 900 of American pa
per and paid gold for it. providing
meanwhile for the commercial wants of
the French at the lowest rates then cur
rent anywhere. 3 and 4 per cent below
the rates imposed in England and Ger
many.
In May of this year, with rates easy
on this side. France reclaimed at a low
rate close to $4,000, 900 of the gold it
had put out at a handsome profit and
is now in possession of $500. OO00 900 of
gold, quite enough to make it indepen-
dent. no matter what happens to its
rivals.
With our patchwork financial system,
our national extraeagance, our debata-
BILE economic methods We may profit
ably consider the French and learn
niodesty of spirit when we talk of ma
tional wealth. We make a good deal
more fuss and show. but the French
have the gold and the brains to use it,