Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-10-13

heSSee; ninety in North Dakota;
eighteen in Nebraska; five in Kan
sas; thirty-eight in Montana: four
teen in Wyoming; thirty-seven in Col
orado; twenty-five in New Mexico;
three hundred in oklahoma; twelve
in Washington; ten in Oregon; thir-
teen in California; two in Utah; one
in Nevada, and thirty-three in Idaho
In one Southwestern State, said
Mr., Williams, 131 banks reported
they charged maximum rate Of in
terest Of from 15 to "a per cent;
SiXty-seVen banks maximum be-
tween % and GO per cent twenty
two banks maximum between GO
and 100 per cent; eighteen between
100 and 200 per cent, and eight be
tween 200 and 1000 per cent.
'Most of these disgraceful rates"
said the Comptroller, were for COM
paratively small loans" The legal
rate in the State, he pointed out, was
8 per cent, and the maximum author
lied by special contract, ten per cent.
Mr.. Williams reviewed the financial
situation through the first year of the
European war. He said that this
country had not only avoided finan-
cial crash, but had wiped out the
floating debt OF $3.50, 100000 due to
Europe January 1st, 1915, and alb
sorbcd between $50 and 1000 mil
lions Of dollars Of American securi-
ties that were held abroad and now
is III condition 10 help finance the
whole world at the conclusion of the
war. He presented as a fact that the
United States was now in position to
buy back the American securities
held in foreign lands, if they should
be offered, but that "EurOpe has
come to realize that America is the
most stable country on earth" and
that investors there cling to Amer -
can securities as likely to be the best
real values "as the American dollar
has become the worlds standard of
value because it commands the
worlds faith"
Giving figures to substantiate this
assurance, the Comptroller said "the
estimated gold supply of the United
States in gold coin and bullion is
more than two billion dollars, of
which State and national banks hold
one billion and the Federal reserve
banks and the treasury Gao millions,
leaving more than four hundred mil
lions in the pockets of the people At
no time in recorded history have the
banks Of any country held such re-
sources as the banks of this country
hold to-day.' Deposits Of all the
banks in the United States, including
trust companies, had, in the past fif-
teen years, increased at the average
rate of about a billion dollars year,
he said.
The income Of the people of the
United States over the expenses Of
living and available for development
and investment amounts to 5000
millions of dollars per annum. Mr..
Williams said he placed the total at
$4,000 millions a year. He said the
total wealth Of the United States is
now estimated at 21O billions as COM
pared with &c billions as the total
wealth Of Germany in 1911; 55 bill
lions, the total wealth Of France in
1908, and 10S billions, the wealth Of
the whole British Empire, including
the United Kingdom, Canada, Austria
liza, India and South Africa, by the
latest available computation, that Of
1903.
Mr.. Williams cautioned his hearers
that the time may be near when this
nation will need it's resources and
when even our unprecedented and
unequalled strength will be taxed"
AT the close OF this great war"
he said, ''it will be our task to finance
the world We may be the one ahlu-
cnt power. The strain on us will be
enormous. We may have to bear,
too, the burden Of providing for our
own defense. We have learned from
observation and from comparison
forced upon us how inadequately pre-
pared we are. We are asleep among
hungry and armed nations in home
crowded with gold and food, with
our doors wide open and not even a
gun on the premises. We will have
to take care of ourselves and Of
countries, governments and peoples
abroad. The one sure foundation, not