Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-01-29

T. YOUR child becomes gravely all,
should YOU leave 1t to it's fate and do
nothing to try to save it?
should an army general turn tail
and run whenever he fears battle
may possibly go against him. or
should he fight until the last hope is
gone?
If YOU are in business and your po-
sjtion becomes shaSy, should you lie
down without a struggle and let your
greditors shift for themselves?
OF course not. Emphatically NO in
all three cases.
should bankers identified with
railroad desert 1t when it becomes
weak or stand by it and strain every
nerve to pull it through?
The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion has made the amazing sugges-
fion that they should! Incredible?
Almost; but listen to this from the
commissions report on the st. Louis
and San Francisco Railroad receiver
"Speyer & 90. should haze been
qirare of the poverty of the Frisco
and Of its difficulties in obtaining
funds"
Should have been aware!" Great
Scott. they WE'RE aware. So was
every American adult knowing the
rudiments of finance and business. So
was every French banker who put out
Frisco bonds-at a Handsome profit.
Is the Commission to lay down a
rule that no banker must supply
funds to any but strong, f1ourishing
railroads? Apparently THAT code
Of banking ethics would please it.
Suppose the Interstate Commerce
Commission had had the power it now
seeks of vising all proposed issues of
railroad securities and thereby hold
ing IN the hollow of its hands the
solvency and bankruptcy of all the
country's railroads, would it have for
hidden the late Edward Fl. Hartman
TO save" the Erie after J. P. Morgan
& Co. had decided to let the road be-
come a crocker? Hartman was
aware of the poverty of the Erie"
He surely was.
Would the Commission have for
hidden this same firm of Speyer &
Co. to extend succor, more than once |
to Edward P. Huntington when he
was striving to keep the Southern
Pacific on its feet? Speyer & Co |
knew full well that the road was
poverty stricken. But their action |
saved the situation.
Should Kuhn, Loeb & Co. have been
forbidden to supply sinews to Har-
riman to build up the Union Pacific |
because it was for long poor as a
church mouse? Certainly" says the
Commission.
We're every banker IN the United
States and every Interested banker in
Europe to Immediately act upon the
principle favored by the Commission.
what a melee there would be.
We would have a worse deluge OF
railroad, industrial, mining and mer-
camille failures than ever encountered
even at the height of the worst panic
IN generation.
For, take 1t from me, there are
quite a few enterprises not exactly
as strong as Gibraltar!
No more asinine statement was
ever made in a governmental report
than the sentence quoted near the
beginning of this article. The com
mission was not asked by the Senate
for expression of opinion" on the
Frisco affair but this did not deter
he commission, always anxious TO
besmirch Wall street bankers" and
everybody associated with railroads
from offering gratuitously more than
one very emphatic opinion.
The serious question raised by the
commissioners extraordinary attitude
is this:
Should bankers desert properties
that become 10eGE?
Well, should they?
Or should they put their shoulders
10 the wheel and seek by might ana
main to avert disaster, not quitting
until the last chance of saving
property has gone?
| am we'll aware that the Frisco
was honeycombed with inside Jug
glery. l was the first to show up the
rottenness of the Yoakum regime and
10 call upon the Interstate Commerce
commission and the Government TO
act. The Hearst newspapers devoted
columns to the subject before other
newspapers woke up to the facts.
publicly declared that Speyer 81 Co
could not afford not to have fun
Investigation made and the whole
truth laid before the people, as the
circumstances of the last piece OF
financing tended to cast odium upon
them.
The facts have since come out, and
not one crumb of evidence has been
adduced rejecting upon the honesty
OF the honor Of Speyer & Co. Wheth-
they should have let the Frisco go
broke before they were forced to DO
80 Is matter for individual opinion
BANKERS having regard for their rep
o'ation don't usually let one of their
properties collapse until actually
o2lged to. AS a matter of fact, had
me Chicago and Eastern Illinois sale
70 the st. Paul been consummated, as
Intended, the Frisco would not nave
gone under. Had monetary condi-
IONS throughout the world improved
instead of having grown worse, the
larAN