The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1913-12-20
The Country Financial Condition


A prominent Utah banker, j. T. Cosgria, who is we'll known in
Nevada. has been making a study of the financial and business con-
dtions throughout the country and he finds them anything but salts
factory. In Analysing the causes for present conditions in the imam
cil world Mr.. Cosgrif ascribes the countrys greatest troubles to
extravaganza and declares that the people will one of these days
find that they must save money instead of spending it In a state
ment that he has given out the banker summarized the results of
his Investigations into the causes of the financial depression and
his statements are worthy of close attention. Among other things
he says:
This country's period OF extravagance-national, municipal
and personal-that has extended over the last few years
is automatically nearing a close, in my opinion, and a REIMBURSEMENT
of financial, social and labor conditions seems imminent
"There is a feeling of apprehension apparent in Eastern bank
ing and business circles that cannot be explained by tariff fear, or
alarm over proposed currency legislation. The cause goes deeper
and. to my mind, strikes straight to the root of the situation-it is
a rapid crystalizing of the realization that the people of the United
States, from ~bondholders to bod carriers, have been spending too
much money, and that this procedure cannot continue much longer
without precipitating trouble.
81 should like to have it thoroughly understood that I am not
talking panic, but it would be folly, as we'll as untrue. to state that
conditions in the business world Of this country are satisfactory
If the truth cannot be told regarding such a situation as now seems
at hand without unnecessarily alarming the business men and labor,
stable basis. 1t is a situation that we mnst meet with open eyes.
Closing our minds to conditions that already exist and those eondi-
lions which seem approaching will avail nothing.
Il have visited New York. Chicago, Washington, Boston. Phil
adelphia, Baltimore and several other cities. In each place the
bankers, merchants, manufacturers and construction men with whom
1 talked expressed the conviction that a period of readjustment for
both capitalistic and labor interests is not far distant At present
labor is we'll employed and this is likely to continue for sometime.
AS long as this prevails, merchandising will continue in heavy vol
umes and merchants will have little to complain Of
THE unrest is higher up. Everyone knows, of course, that
stocks of all kinds have been lquidated of late to a considerable ex-
There has been a marked depreciation in the market value
of the shares of many companies, particularly of textile corporations.
This is beginning to be felt by the men who are rated as wealthy.
They are spending less money than they did a year and two years
ago. Such interests are not investing as formerly in building and
construction operations. The volume of work already underway,
however, is sufficient for the present employment of the greater por-
ton of available labor in the country and for that reason very little
of the uneasiness prevalent among the moned interests has made its
appearance outside the latter circles.
This added cost of doing business is a boomerang on the buy
ing public. Merchants have not been making exorbitant prices.
As fast as their cost of doing business increases they add it to the
selling prices of the goods they handle. If a man and his ~neighbors
made it necessary for a grocer to put on an extra delivery wagon,
they pay the operating expenses of the outfit and the initial cost
long before the year is up.
"And so it goes on up through the various classes of business
We have demanded more service; We have received it and We have
paid for it."