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.
5y g. c. FORBES.

5y 3. =. ? OHBES.
NEW YORK. Aug S.-The follow
fng article, which can at least be de-
scribed as timely. is part of longer
one on Finance" in Hearsts 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. I
have tried to convey some idea of
what the annual value of Americas
crops really means. for merely to
mention billions creates only a vague,
hewildering feeling
What is the lodestar of American
finance and business? Not politics. i'm
portant though they are a such times as
these Not fall or a rise in the cost of
living, fundamental as that is. Not heavy
exports or light exports, dear money or
cheap money. a gold inflow or 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 United States is the size of our crops
The farmer is more powerful than the
fnancier in making or marring prosperity.
] 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 financer
an international banker of the first
4 in q!
systems, power in the industrial world:
Prosperity or depression does not
depend upon how ballots are cast on
November ). Capital is prepared for
such legislative changes as are likely
to be introduced. Give us bounteous
harvests, and 1913 will be the best
year the country has ever known
except that the railroads. in order to
participate, must be treated more
considera tely in the matter of freight
rates"
Blooms in securities are not made on
the floor of the New York Stock Elk
change They are made on the country's
fields and in its 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 enormity 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 ,OOO-ten
lp1l
Ten billion dollars would cover the
whole of Manhattan Island with 81 bills
and leave balance greater than Mr..
IS Rockefeller's fortune. In acres, the area
covered by this carpet of money would
be 27O53. equal to a square block of land
measuring IS miles each way
Ten billion dollars gold would take 80
trains, each of 20 cars loaded to the ex-
tent OF $4,000 pounds per car to haul it
from one point to another.
Ten billion dollars in IS gold pieces
laid alongside one another would stretch
round the world, with l 1923 miles to spare.
or the chain could go more than eight
times across the continent from New
York to San Francisca-to be exact its
length would be 26,S30 miles
Ten billion dollars in So gold Dieces
monument 9,864A 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 pnhead.
Ten billion dollars would pay off the
nations public debt and leave 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 to 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
financers are likely to act study the
government and other trustworthy reports
on agricultural conditions from week to
week and month to month"