Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-06-11
VANDERBILT SAYS
DEPRESSION IS
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Banker Partly Agrees With
Wilson, but BIames Activity
of Demagogues.

NEW LONDON, Conn. June H.
In an address today before the New
York Bankers Association, in an
nual convention here, Frank A. Van
derlip, president of the National City
Bank of New York, analyzed the
business situation of the day, holding
that it had become dependent upon
POLITICAL rather than economic fac
tors. In part he accepted President
Wilson's diagnosis of a 'psychologi-
cal' trouble in business.
81 believe" he said, that the lack
of enthusiasm about the future, the
state of pessimism that surrounds
many phases of business, the dispo-
sition toward extreme conservatism,
| the lack of new plans for capital ex-
penditure for railway Improvement
and extension, for new industrial con-
| quest, all have their roots in a state
of mind rather than in the statistics
of actual business data; but l am not
| certain that this state of mind is
| grounded in unfounded fears; that it
| is caused by legislative ghosts; that
it is engendered by baseless appre-
| hension concerning legislative tenden-
| New standard for Business Outlook.
"The obstacles in the way OF bust
ness recovery may perhaps be truly
described as physiological, and still
| be a manifestation of sound business
sense in apprehending the true mean
ing of the political-economic situa-
ton
He described the standards that
tn in dp-i nj n
| business. future-statstics of produc-
| tion and distribution, condition of
the money market and of credit, crop
outlook, etc.
Now" he said, 1.-The Congressional
Record is crowding out of its place
of Importance the Financial Chron
icle. We watch executive and con-
gressional actions rather than the
comptroller's abstract to guage the
status of banking affairs. The atti-
tude of mind of the Interstate Com
merce Commission has become more
important than the statistics of rail
road traffic We read the totals of
our foreign trade to learn the effect
of changed tariff law, rather than of
| trade tendencies.
Reports of the attitude of mind
of the attorney-general vie in inter-
est with the crop predictions of the
secretary of agriculture. Investiga-
| tions by bureaus, commissions or
| Congress form more important fea-
| ture in gauging market outlook than
do the plans for development or ex-
pansion formulated by the executive
committees of corporations. Plans for
| development or expansion of rail-
roads or business enterprises have.
! indeed, been heard of but little. The
! factors that we have mostly in mind
/ are how new laws are going to work;
what new laws are next to be passed;
what is the prospect not of crops, but
of congressional action.
If Psychological Factors Were Removed.
IF such psychological factors could
be eliminated for a moment and the
old view taken we would see looming
large the prospect of a great agricul-
tural yield, giving promise in some
directions of bumper crops now al
| most assured.
Il would so organize the business
men of the whole country that blath-
erskites in Congress may be held up
! in their true light to the public. |
would openly go into the district OF a
| demagogue and either defeat him or
prove that the public of that district
wanted to be represented by known
demagogue." -.--