The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-07-28
PANIC OF 1907
Under Roosevelt Was the Most Acute
and Demoralizing i'm History of
the United States

ed by Theodore Roosevelt, are con-
tinuing their efforts TO reap politi- |
cal advantage by plunging the bust
ness world into a panic. Comparison
of the business and politics of 1907
under Roosevelt with the business |
and politics of 1914 under Wilson, |
therefore, becomes timely and peril |
nent.
In the present year, numerous and
convincing evidences are at hand in
dicating that period of unprecedent-
ed prosperity has begun. This is
true, notwithstanding the campaign
to destroy confidence and paralyze
business jointly waged for the last
few months by the Republican parti-
sans and their Wall street allies.
There are many reasons for the en-
couraging outlook now. Not the
least of them lies in the fact that the
new currency law was put onto the
statute books by the Wilson admin
istration. This law was enacted with
in a year after the president took Of
fee. After the panic of 1907, what
was done to fortify against panics
during the six years that the repub-
licans remained in power?
Scarcely calamity speech is made
in Congress which does not assert
that republican rule signifies pros
perity and democratic rule the re-
verse They make loud ado in COM
pairing 1914 and 1894. Not word
do they say, however. about 1907.
The foremost republican authority
upon matters financial in 1907 was
/ the then Senator Nelson w. Aldrich,
| of Rhode Island Aldrich was high
priest of republican tariff and finan-
cial doctrine. Not only that, he was
the leader of his party in Congress.
On February 10, 1908, delivering a
set speech in the Senate, Aldrich de-
scribed the panic of 1907 as the most
acute and disastrous in the history
of the country. He said:
Mr.. President, the financial crisis
from which the country has just
emerged, which eliminated in a ser
ious panic in October, was the most
acute and disastrous in its immedi-
ate consequences of any that has oc-
CURED in the history of the country.
Nothing but the heroic measures
taken by the representatives of the
great business and financial interests
of the country, acting in cooperation
with the secretary of the treasury,
prevented a total collapse of private
credit and disastrous destruction
of all values. It is impossible to
conceive, much less to measure, the
losses which would have resulted
from such a calamity. The country
was saved by the narrowest possible
margin from an overwhelming catas-
trophe, whose blighting effect would
have been felt in every household.
"A total collapse was avoided, but
the shrinkage in values of securities
and property and the losses from in
jury to business, resulting from and
Incidental to the crisis, amounted to
thousands of millions of dollars"
/ Prior panics in the United States,
i he continued, had been panics in
which serious distrust existed in the
public mind as to the security of the
whole or some portion of the coun-
try's currency
1.-The panic of 1907" he went on.
was not either, in it's inception or
tic no MI in q
sense to which have alluded. Our
currency, in character was beyond
question
Neither in strength of the none
: tary system nor the extraordinary eff
| forts which were made TO avoid the
serious result prevented a general
suspension of payments by national
banks, with most deplorable and far
| reaching results. This suspense
commenced in New York on Octo-
Der &c and was followed prompt
ly by a suspension of banks in Chi
cago and other localities. The is
sue of clearing house certificates fol-
lowed in most of the principle cities.
ga complete disruption of ex-
Ichanges between cities and commun-
tiles throughout the country took
place. 1t is impossible to estimate
the losses which were inflicted by this
suspension of payments by the banks
and the resultant interruption of ex-
changes. There was financial en-
barrassment on every hand, and an
impossibility of securing the proper
funds to move crops or carry on the
important business of the country.
The suspension and disbursement
of business operations threw thous-