The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1913-08-01
WASHINGTON GOSSIP

If ! have any reputation as a pro-
prediction: That whatever there
was of a money scare this year is
over. If that is SO, it is good news,
and l think / can show a good basis
for the statement.
l have very vivid recollection of
several panics. Any one who has
observed them will tell you that
stocks go away down and then
start back up when the scare is over.
The up-turn comes when cautious
old investors decide that the bottom
has been reached and go into their
safety deposit boxes and misery re.
ceptacles to bring out their hidden
money and spend it at the stock ex-
change bargain counter.
Several months ago / picked out
a certain stock to watch. 1t was
Southern Railway common, selling
then for twenty-seven dollars a
share. The Southern Railway COW
ers that part of the South in which
we all feel an especial interest. The
stock ought to be a pretty good in.
dex to general conditions in this
section. 1t began to drop off last
spring. Gradually it went down to
nineteen and a fraction. 1t hung
around twenty for several weeks.
Lately it has begun to go up. see
it quoted this week at twenty-four.
i believe in signs like that. 1t means
that the country has weathered the
furry caused by the tariff fight and
that business is no longer afraid of
the Democratic administration.
Other stocks are moving up the
same way.
We are within six weeks of the
opening of the cotton season. Good
crops are assured. Although money
is tight, it is not because the banks
haven't got plenty of it, They've
got it all right but they have thought
1t best to go slow. And really it is
best for the people to haul in their
sails every few years The crop of
1913 is going to be made on less ex-
pense than any other crop in sew
eral years. So the farmers will have
that much more money to call their
own.
The trouble is over, whether Con-
gress passes a currency bill or not.
The banks have been piling up mon
ey for months. The New York
banks are full of it and the Georgia
banks are full of it. They have not
felt it necessary to use any of the
five hundred million dollars of emer-
gency currency that is lying in the
vaults in Washington and which
they can get any time they want it
at five per cent About October first
business, which has been asleep for
six months is going to awake like
an aroused giant and this country
is going on boom. Nothing can
prevent it. We are too near the
crop season and the banks are too
well supplied with cash for it to be
otherwise.
The tariff bill will be passed in
six or eight weeks and the business
world already knows what it will be
No prediction as to currency legisla-
ton would be worth while Just now
as the Democrats in the House are
considerable divided, but President
Wilson is confident that currency
bill will be passed at the extra ses-
sion. If few leaders get together
and re-shape the currency bill that
has been introduced as the admins
tration measure, making il conform
more to the ideas of practical bank
men, it will be passed. Few mem
bers Of Congress have really studied
the currency question. They don't
know too much about anything, but
they are especially raw on currency.
There are enough Democrats how
ever to put over good bill if the
leaders will do the thinking for the
bunch and prepare the measure.
But Tariff or no Tariff, currency
bill or no currency bill, l am going
TO risk what little reputation | have
on the statement that day is break
ing and the dawn of brighter times
is showing in the east.
JOSIAH CARTER.