Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-08-08
FACT AND GOSSIP
IN MONEY MARTS
Greatest Annual Business Fact
in the United States is the
Size of Crops.
BY 8. c. FORBES.


NEW YORK, Aug. S-The follow
ing article, which can at least be de-
scribed as timely, is part of a longer
one on Finance" in Hearst's Maya
zine for August Those of us who
frequent the highways of finance be-
come so accustomed to speaking of
millions and even billions that we are
apt to lose all sense of proportion. l
have tried TO convey some idea of
what the annual value of Americas
crops really means, for merely to
mention billions creates only vague
bewildering feeling
What is the Iodestar of American
finance and business? Not politics. i'm
portant though they are at such times as
these Not q fall or rise in the cost of
living, fundamental as that is Not heavy
exports or light exports, dear money or
cheap money, a gold inflow OF a gold out
flow. an active iron market or an in
active iron market, advancing security
prices or falling security prices, scarcity
or abundance Of labor-not one of these.
The greatest annual business fact in
the United States is the size of our crops.
Inc farmer is more powerful than the
Hnanc1er in making or marring prosperity.
l speak of this now because investors
must be guided in their operations more
by what takes place on the field than on
the stump, more by the weather than the
mouthings of politicians. Said a financier
an International banker of the first
order a director in our principal railroad
systems. power in the industrial world:
Prosperity or depression does not
depend upon how ballots are cast on
November 5. Capital is prepared for
such legislative changes as are likely
to be introduced Give us bounteous
harvests, and 1918 will be the best
year the country has ever known
except that the railroads, in order to
participate, must be treated more
considerably in the matter of freight
rates.
Blooms in securities are not made on
the floor of the New York Stock Ex-
change. They are made on the country's
fields and in it's factories and forests No
one can hope to become-and continue
a successful investor until he grasps the
oVershadowing Importance of watching
agricultural conditions. I have prepared
some contrasts and comparisons between
the annual, value of our farm products
and other big financial items with which
the public are more or less familiar
Some interesting calculations. designed to
visualize the enorInity of the sum. have
also been made.
The total value of our farm products
this year allowing for normal growth.
should approximate $4,000, 900 O00-ten
billion dollars, or ten thousand millions
Ten billion dollars would cover the
whole of Manhattan Island with 50 bills
and leave balance greater than Mr..
Rockefeller's fortune. In acres, the area
covered by this carpet OF money would
be 2L053. equal to a square block of land
measuring So miles each way
Ten billion dollars gold would take 30
trains. each of 20 cars loaded to the ex-
tent of 10000 pounds per car. to haul it
from one point to another
Ten billion dollars in S. gold pieces
laid alongside one another would stretch
round the world, with 1923 miles to snare
or the chain could go more than eight
times across the continent. from New
York to San Francisco--to be exact, it's
length would be $3.50 miles.
Ten billion dollars in IS gold pieces
stacked one above the other would form
q monument 9,S644 miles high Com
pared with this the METROPOLITAN tower,
the Singer building, the Woolworth build
ing and every other skyscraper in New
York placed on top of one another would
be a mere pinhead.
Ten billion dollars would pay off the
nations public debt and leave d balance
of almost $4,000 600, 600
Ten billion dollars, if equally distrib-
uted, would mean fully 500 for every
man. woman and child in the United
States.
Need more be said 10 emphasize how
tremendously, how overwhelmingly i'm
portant the crops are to our national we'll
being? Therefore, if you would keep well
informed of how business is likely to fare
of how stocks are likely to move, of how
financiers are likely to act, study the
government and other trustworthy reports
on agricultural conditions from week to
week and month to month";