The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-09-10
SCALING DOWN
Of THE PRICES
Financial Disturbance in Eu-
rOpean Centers Reacts Upon
United States.
BANK OF ENGLAND IS
ACCUMULATING GOLD
Money Rates Higher in Berlin;
Result Is Cheapening of
American Stocks.
BY RALPH EMERSON.
sed Wire TO The Tribune.

| By Leased Wire TO The Tribune.
| NEW YORK, Sept. s.-rhe three incl
dents Of the present week which at
tracted most comment and most at
| tention among the financiers Were the
rise In money rates at Berlin; the per-
sistent strengthening OF its own posi-
ton by the Bank Of England. both
through accommodating gold and issuing
loans. and. finally. the resumed decline
on the New York stock exchange. In "a
certain sense, It Is possible that all three
phenomena have common cause.
II the German market, pretty widely
extended after its period OF prolonged
activity, were suddenly confronted With
unfavorable conditions, IL would have 10
bid for money to sustain Its commit
ments, much as our own market had to
do In the late months of 1907.
If the Bank OF England were to dis
cover that Paris. which for so long had
been the complaisant money lender TO
all borrowing communities, had begun TO
call in its loans because 1t had already
loaned too much. the London bank would
know that it must prepare for more
urgent inquiry In Lombard street. And
II Wall street, after hoping that things
would look promising enough TO attract
the genuine investor into the stock mar
ket at its lower level, had found that
all of the past fortnights buying had
been covering by the bears" and that
the bears had filled their Immediate re-
quirements. then 1T might easily reason,
like merchant, that prices Of its goods
must be marked down again to attract
customers.
AS it happens in the present instance,
there is at least reasonable eXpecta-
tion for each OF the. striking movements
Of the markets. quite unconnected with
other highly coored and therefore more
alluring theories. Until therefore, it be-
comes impossible longer to explain the
basis of reasoning, 1t Is quite as well
for the ordinary man to hold 10 the
simple. explanation, which IS that Eu
rope, having had It's turn at OVERRIDING
ample Of financial readjustment
That would, OF course react upon
America. But the real perplexlty in the
American situation Is that which arises
from the estimates OF the crops. Have
we encountered. as result of the very
unfavorable season, national calamity,
or Is it only that we had pinned our
faith to supremely lucky wlndfall.
whereby nature. as she had done so many
times before, should pull us out OF a
scrape. which we saw and recognized, and
come? 1t Is little early in the season
TO say yes or no TO either question. AS
nation. we are very sensitive to the
vicissitudes Of crops and most of the
None, OF them is failure. though
wheat crop which promises a smaller
yield than any year but one since 1904:
crop OF oats which, except for the very
the smallest in half dozen years: a
corn crop far below 1910 and 1909 and
hay crop lower by far than any since
1888. will not inspire great enthusiasm
But harvest disappointments, after all,
are matters OF a season: we shall begin
again next year with plans for bump
er CROP" and the country will cheer
fully engage again IN the greatest of all
speculations-the gamble OF human in
dustry and labor against the caprice Of
nature. Unexpectedly abundant crops
will often-as in 1891 and perhaps in
l00S-postpone a reckoning. Invited by
financial shortcomings, and Unexpectedly
deficient crops-as in 1881 and 1S94-will
sometimes aggravate the reaction and
depression which were due on the cal
epdar In any case, The main question
Is always whether or not the financial
organization will adjust Itself tenn
porarlly to It's new condition and con-
serve It's resources until nature favors
us again. That at any rate. seems to
be what the United States is doing now
In the meantime, there is material for
study In the spectacle of the grain pro-
ducing community lamcnting It's failure
TO harvest series of record" crops
although the very moment when the cot
ton producing community Is holding
meetings and button-ho every casual
visitor. TO convince the world that the
cotton crop is really not the handsome
yield that the markets profess to think
1t, but pitlfully inadequate harvest.