New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-03-02
The Business View
AND THE DOCTRINE INTEREST AS BETWEEN
ENGLAND AMERICA.
Copyright. 1913. by G. W. srnaHe,l
London. January -.

You might think the Engllsh 81
much absorbed in their own affairs 10
be interested in ours, but that is not
quite so. Since | landed al Fishgua:d
three weeks ago ] have been asked a
string Of questions about what ! saw
and heard in America, and these ques-
tons range far afield The most press
ing ~elate, naturally, TO business mi
politics. and to the existing relations
between the two. They used TO be con-
sdered separately, but Mr.. Roosevelt :
incursions into financial and Industrial
domains have always seemed 10 .ie
English dangerous experiments. AT
any rate. they have altered the condi-
tons. The defeat of Mr.. Roosevelt re-
assured the business public Of Eng
land. yet the men who do business
with America are not entirely happy.
because they do not know what he
President elect. or the party behind
him, really mean TO do about trusts
and such matters. And so they ASK
fNNs'S'N'is- LUZ Go We Wv nv VN' 50 ' -
know what lies at the back of DR.. VIII
sons mind. any answers we can set
give have TO be rather vague.
They will tell YOU that the one thing
which tends to reassure them 10 win
their confidence in the immediate
future Of the States, is the prosperity
of the country. That. and not politics
of any kind whatever. seems to them
vital. They have had here good deal
of recent experience in mixing politics
and finance, and they do not like il.
They have looked on at that revolution
in administrative finance which has
converted the Treasury from a Vigilant
guardian Of public money into a great
spending department and a great polit-
zeal engine. Even if they thought Mr..
Lloyd George whom they hold mainly
responsible, capable Chancellor of the
EXchequer or a wise politician. they
would not think the change a good one.
AS they think him neither they are
alarmed and anxious about the results
of his financial and political advent
ures. They ask you whether Mr.
Lloyd George and Mr.. Roosevelt are
not birds of a feather. and then again
they pass TO DR.. Wilson and put very
searching heterogeneous touching the
mysteries of his policy, if he has one.
Then again they console themselves.
and would console us, by the reflection
that neither of these agitators. English
or American, has been able TO prevent
his own country from advancing by
leaps and bounds toward wealth and
the kind Of content which wealth alone.
no matter how distributed, brings with
IT,
They tell you that. in England, ship
ping and shpbuilding and the allied
trades have increased and are increa5-
ing. and that the prosperity Of this
country increases with them. They
ask YOU if ii is not true that in the
United States every important crop Is
good crop and whether every impor-
tant industry is not thriving That "
said banker who watches the Ameri-
can markets. lis what we really care
TO know" And they do know it, quite
as well as we do. They are therefore
ready To- pour English capital into
American enterprises. They argue that
if the good intentions Of Mr.. Roosevelt
could not destroy, nor even materially
njure. the immense Industrial develop
ment Of America. the immediate future
Of the country. even under Democratic
rule. ought to be safe. They are quite
aware OF the menaces embodied ia
The Baltimore platform, and IN Mr..
Bryan's continuing ascendancy in he
Democratic party. But they have
learnt that platforms are but SO much
electioneering literature, and that III.
Bryan is powerless 10 control economic
forces. They are inclined also TO be-
IieVe that the country is not really GOV
erned from Washington, but from
wherever its strongest men carry on,
their business; and upon that belief
they rel. when they have to take busi-
ness decisions.
10 you mean 10 tell me-" uueried a
man OF the City, that MIR. BRYAN mr.
Dr- wilson has more influence on al
fairs than Mr. Pierpont Morgan"
hastened TO answer that | didn't
mean TO tell him anything Of the kind
Then he went on:
We have not always admired Mr.
Morgans methods. our notions ara
more conservative than his. Buf we
are well aware of the great ser,.,cos
Mr. Morgan has rendered TO bis
country, and while his influence is pre-
dominant we feel sure that we can in
vest money safely in America. and we
do invest it, But We should like 10
know whether his authority was i'm
paired by that Congress inquiry into
what they called the Money Trust, of
which we had here only imperfect re-
ports
/ explained to my friend what | un-
derstood To be the all but universal
opinion in America, that Mr. Morgan
was a greater man after his examna
ton than before: that perhaps never
before had people been so much i'm
pressed by his broadness Of view, by
his openness and sincerity. by his
paramount regard for public interests
and by his mastery of the whole situa-
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