White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1913-12-14
AUTOMOBILES EFFECT
ON BUSINESS

The United States used to save
from $500. 600. 900 to s75O.oOo.Ooo
a year.
The United States now spends for
automobiles and automobiling at
least 100000 600 a year.
Does this throw any light on the
unprecedented lack of demand for
investments and the consequent
grave shrinkage in the market value
Of securities
Money, you know, must be saved
before it can be invested. The in
dividual who spends all he earns
cannot buy one share of stock or
even a 500 bond.
How many persons, how many
families. do you know or know of
who used to live economically and
bank a nice little sum each year who
now sport an automobile that cost
anywhere from $500 to $4,000 and
which entails an upkeep expense o.
several hundred or several thousand
dollars each year,. Obviously these
people cannot both spend their mon
ey and save i.
Reflect for a moment-oT, better
stiil. al hour-and see if you can
not trace direct connection between
this new orgy OF expenditure and
the absence of buying Of bonds,
stocks and mortgages. If We have
m entirely new expense account Of
%$750.O00. 600 annually. is il not rea-
sonable to figure that t his must cut
into the sum available for invest
ment OF for putting in the savings
Danke
Remember. also. that similar con
have arisen all over the world
Il have seen automobiles, years ago,
in the remotest corners of the globe.
where the home-staying New Yorker
would picture nothing but desolation
My mind was drawn TO this whole
subject recently by "an upstate
farmer" to use his own phrase. "
T. Sherwood of Sidney. y. Y. We
who live in villages and know every
body and their anteeedents.a said
Mr.. Sherwood sagely. get closer
to one another than YOU New York
ers. We know about how much each
family Is worth. how much il spends
and how much it saves. Now. | ind
that most Of our people who used to
save from $500 10 $4,000 a year
and either buy a local mortgage.
deposit II in a bank or invest in a
bond or in stocks. now own an AZ
tomobile. Most of what used 10 be
invested has gone into automobiiing
during the last year or two This
change in our local life set me
thinking
And | venture [ o say that his
thinking and his deductions Will in
you.
The world has been prosperous,
he said. beyond ordinary. Bust
ness everywhere has been good. Yet
securities have been steadily deelin-
ing. tFrench government bonds
recently fell 10 the lowest price
ever reoorded.) Puzzled security
holders have thought of the Balkan
wars. political change. the tariff, the
currency bill. Mexico, and the gov
crnmental attitude toward large cor
pofations. But have any of the
cause named seemed sufficient 10.
why last years great crops
faded from sight without giving a
few days stimulus TO the investment
That such an addition Of
disappeared and left no trace
Of itself behind IS a new experience
in the financial world. Evidently a
leak-and a Leak O no mean pre-
portions-has sprung in our CONNER
eial system. Can We race it2
Carefully complied figures show
thar N 1911 approximately s5Ve.-
100000 OF the nations earnings
were diverted IN like manner. while
in 1913 practically $1,000. 600 600 Is
being consumed in this same channel.
Nov. the annual surplus earning
capacity of the United States Is
v~ariously estimated at from five
hundred millions TO one billion dol
lars. This surplus wealth IS the
rNnl from which IA new buildings
new enterprises. our railroad
extensions and our municipal i'm
provements are financed. And II is
from this same surplus fund that
the items. $500. geo. $500. 0oe.-
900 and $1,000. zoe. ooo have been