The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-01-09
EXTRACTS FROM 6RADsTREETs
REVIEW OF BUSINESS YEAR
(By Associated Press.)

dred and thirteen was year Oh us
ouiet and disappointment alike IN FOR
eign and domestic finance, trade ana
industry. The disquiet was world |
wide. though until the latter part ol
this year not so much in evidence d'
home as abroad. Disappointment was
keen with those who, with knowledge
of the many politico-economic comes
tic problems pressing for solution
were hopeful that the exceptionally
strong position of this country's pro-
aucing and consuming interests would
render us partly Independent or, II
not entirely immune to, the play OF
the large financial forces dominating
the world in the year just closed, and
making for depression in finance and
trade. Review of last years events
would prove incomplete il sight were
lost of the many resemblances 1t bore
To 1862 and 1903. just ten years ago.
when the so-called rich mans" or
silent panic" occurred. Then conges-
ton in the securities markets was IN
evidence, the phrase financial lndl-
eestion' was coined. the results OF
much injudicious capitalization OF IN
dustries were manifest-frst in col
1apsing stock market prices and later
in depressed trade and industrial con
ditions-numerou strikes and bank
suspensions occurred, and all the US
uai aftermath was presented of an ex-
tended financial or credit situation be-
ing readjusted
1t has been frequently and with
Justice said that the Balkan war and
its attendant evils did not cause, but
rather precipitated and revealed the
worldwide financial strain of 1913. 1t
must with equal justice be held that
most observers failed to adequately
measure and forecast the effects, di-
rect and indirect, of the war which,
starting in October, 1912, drenched
the Balkans and European Turkey in
blood, converted eastern Europe into
an armed camp, caused boarding OF
gold in Austria, France and Germany,
put a practical period to the European
financial and commercial boom, and
in steadily widening circles reached
into and affected the finances and
trade of countries thousands of miles
away from and apparently unconnect-
ed with the hostilities. No country
proved immune, and all felt the strain
of an already greatly over-extended
credit situation, inability to borrow
new loans and difficulty in getting old
Issues refunded. Brazil and India,
Germany and Austria, France and
England, Canada and Mexico, as well
as the United States, were affected,
this country, perhaps. least of all, be
cause OF our wonderful export trade
balance, cushioning the impact upon
us of the outer worlds forces. Once
again our membership in the family
of nations brought home to us the real
interdependence of the countries, and
when we confidently expected relief
for our own financial needs from our
enormous export balance, instead of
gold supplies paid US in settlement of
these balances, we received back our
own securities, which as in other
years of general strain, sold most
readily in the worlds markets In
deed as the result of three-cornered
exchange operations, We found our
selves paying other nations balances
in markets where our own trade in
terests required payments to instead
OF disbursements by US, of the
worlds chief circulating medium
The worlds financial difficulties
bulked large in our list of problems,
but there was no lack Of items of do
mestic concern. In session of con-
gress remarkable for its length. two
much agitated and frequently fought
over questions were forced to a con-
clusion, The tariff was revised, but
its enactment, by the way. was coin
cident with a shrinkage instead of
the predicted enlargement in our i'm
port trade, and coincidently an in
come tax law was put in operation for
the first time since the civil war pc
Rod The currency measure, design
ed to take the place of an outworn
and often discredited system, also be
came law. The Union Pacific-South-
ern Pacific Railway merger was dis
solved, and terms were agreed upon
between the telegraph and telephone
interests and the country's law officers
without the aid of a suit, thus point
ing way to an ending Of the ten-year
period Of hurrying so-called big bust
ness through the courts.
DESPITE, however. the numerous
drawbacks arising from money scar