The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-13
FINANCIAL REVIEW
OF The PAST WEEK
Responsibility Of Politics for
Continuing Halt Called
in Business.
WHOLE COUNTRY IN CHECK
An Interesting Report on South
and West by a New York
Traveller.
WHOLE COUNTRY IN CHECK

this consequence which impose checks on
recovering tendencies In the financial mar
k.ts and In general business the stage
seems TO have been reached where politics
must be regarded as a more obviously i'm
portant factor than II has been In deter
A glance abroad shows conditions very
much the same as at home.
Financial positions have been extern
sively liouidated and trade and industrial
positions have been contracted TO a degree
which almost guarantees their intrinsic
soundness. The circumstances of tho
money markets. while owing their extreme
ease to the diminished requirements of
commerce and manufacturing and the alb
eence OF speculative activity. rather than
TO any tremendous increase OF free can't
tsl available for long time investment,
seem To favor processes OF recovery. OPP
portunity in every land awaits the employ.
ment OF brains and money for the produce
ton OF new wealth. and the season OF the
year has come when men ordinarily de-
rive enough incentive from the reasonable
probability OF good crops to indulge In
expensive engagements for future profits
The same glance abroad shows. however.
A. at home. enterprise restrained By po-
litical considerations.
There are no menacing questions OF in
ternauonai relations impending, although
International affairs are not being handled
very well by the Cove rnments OF leading
nations, least Of all by our own This,
because OF the share which international
strain had In precip!taCng the economic
disturbance Of the last eighteen months,
has to be reckoned with as adverse 90 con-
s'ructive financial and business endeavor.
There Is an uneasy feeling in Europe that
the Continental gold grabbing which has
been reflected in a progressive impalrmen Mt
OF the Bank OF England's condition in tho
last few months. while the other great CEN
trail banks Of Europe have strengthened
themselves enormously. implies a DELHI
crate purpose TO augment war chests"
but military alarms OF one kind or an
other are the very terms OF European
economic existence. They have bred q
hardihood which usually enables the Euro
pean banker and business man to 20
ahead as though nothing were 10 happen
which would interfere with peaceful
pursuits.
1t does not seem to be the case that
Europe Is marking time, economically
speaking. on account of apprehensions Of
war. any more than is the United States
standing still in a business way because
the Mexican imbroglio wears unpleasa n;
aspects or because We have several for
eign controversies on our hands which
might become disagreeabIe. No. IL is
hardly International politics which has
laid an embargo on business. but an ex-
animation OF domestic politics and their
relation to business shows a different
situation.
Something like state Of financial
paralysis is being only slowly overcome
IN France. one of the two countries from
which customarily issues the chief stimu-
lus TO worldwide economic effort France
Is one OF the great purveyors Of CAPITAL
TO other nations. and the French pro-
vision OF capital for all purposes has been
held very much in abeyance by an ex-
tensive loss OF French confidence I'm the
tendencies OF the French Government
In Great Britain the Ulster crisis is but
one aspect of political division between
excessive radicalism and stubborn con
eervatlsm that has sorely tested the pro-
verbal fortitude OF British finance and
has lately begun to interfere with any
thing Ike normal expression Of the
adventurous spirit OF British capital
Reference TO political situations
abroad Is worth making because II en-
phasizes phase OF the general situation
which IL becoming uppermost in our own
land II has not been commended In these
columns during the past year that poll
TICS was primarily responsible for bring
ing on nnahciaI and business depression
Due recognition has been accorded TO the
fact that conditions had been created nv
waste OF capital and by abuse OF credit
which rendered Inevitable such an eco
nomic halt as was called more than a
year ago. Nevertheless IL would seem
more than likely now THAT some concession
must be made TO the contention that poll
Tics explains the maintenance OF so slow
pace as that at which the business and
financial communities are moving.
rms country more than any other In
PROBABLY nj TO move vigorously forward.
in process OF realizing its economic
possibilities, and every argument which
can be drawn from the Fundamental
soundness Of financial and business DO
sltions IN any land applies with greater
force TO positions here. Moreover the
portents Of the money market are
strengthened in our own case by the
provision OF financial facilities contained
In the currency legislation of 1913. So
far as concerns the encouragement Of the
crop outlook. never has the pro.pec,
seemed more fair. Last years agricul-
turai disappointment should additionally
be an assurance OF agricultural abundance
In 1914. and even though April is too
early month for the promise Of agrI-
culture to unfold itself, IL is all To the
good that spring has opened with splen-
did soil conditions and with winter wheat
IN state which lends itself To foreca st
OF crop of $4,000, 900 bushels, or
1875, 600. 900 bushels more than there was
ever actually harvested.
Yet in face OF all this the country finds
Itself at what is relatively a business
standstill. for which IL can to-day dis
cover only one explanation, loss OF con-
hdcnce on political account that pre-
vents capital from engaging in new
enterprise on which the restoration of
really prosperous activity essentially de-
Ponds. A survey Of all the known factors
In tho reckoning Of business men and
bankers suggests that It lie political
achievement in the recent past and the
continuing programme of politics In the
present to which inquiry must address Il.
self for an explanation OF the perslsten,
stagnation of trade and industry, the
growing army OF unemployed labor and
the apprehensions with which develop.
ments are awaited.
AS bearing on tho situation a repor,
just made by very astute fnancia
observer after an extended trip south
ward and westward throughout the coun
try deserves to be presented here. Prob
ably not In twenty years has so able !
representative OF New York financial In
terests made such a trip and failed I,
return without optimistic Inspiration
which he could impart to his associates
Remarkable as IL is In this respect, hi
cause OF the impressions received by hin
that prevented any formation OF artisti
opinions. The main points of his obser
vations follow:
'"rhe trip lasted about Ave weeks anc
took mo to st. Louis. New Orleans, Sar
| Antonio, Los Angeles, San Francisco