The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1919-11-01
Boersidner's
Comment
on Business
BY BOERsIANER.

The four illustratively selected are
the insult organizations, the Com
monwealth- Edison and the Peoples
Gas Light and Coke Company, of
Chicago; the Public Service COMPANY
which serves the belt territory around
Chicago; the Middle-West Utilities,
which operates in Illinois, Indiana
and in Kentucky.
The Commonwealth Edison mas
sufficient coal to operate to full ca
pacity for sixty days. The same ac-
emulation is in, the bins Of the Pub.
lie Service concern. Peoples Gas is
furnished with enough coal and oil
for fifty days operation. The mid
dle-West subsidiaries have a forty
five days stock.
Railways and similar major asso-
Citations are equally fortified so thct
anxiety on the score of sufficiency is
borrowed. If the strikers-assuming
a strikc-are not beaten at the out
set. their defeat within sixty days ia
liberal time allowance) is a fairly
logical certainty.
With rank and file sentiment Sead
against a collective walk -out in the
mines, with rigorous Government in
PREVENTION which will send engineer
corps into the pits and soldiers into
the miners regions to keep order, il
is easy to understand why the stock
market gradually gained poise, de-
spite the shock early in the session
instigated by exultant professional
ism.
In foreign trade matters there is
need of an intellectual evangelist
The right idea is deafened by the
hak 80 f,,t
scured by printed propositions whose
feasibility is undiscoverable. Sena-
tor Edges plan is feasible, but be-
fore it is finally adopted-if adopted
at all-much commerce must Ian
guish.
How would it do, meanwhile, for
the large industrial concerns that ship
heavily to Europe to- invest in for
eign securities? They invested liber-
ally in the securities of their best
customer during the war, the United
States Government, and secondly, in
the bonds of their next best custo-
mers, the allied governments.
Pursuing the same course, they
might take on the values of European
corporations. thereby facilitating con-
and products
Obviously, the burden cannot be
borne by American banks; they are
fully occupied in other directions,
and indeed are meeting English COM
petition on their own ground The
ability and readiness OF London bank
ers are. vividly exemplified by an
abrupt transfer of a loan from Chi
cago to London.
A Western corporation in need of
100000 was negotiating with do
nestle banks. During the negotia-
tions the agent OF huge London in
stitution slipped in and offered to
furnish the money for six months at
per cent. The offer was the reader
accepted in that the borrowers saw
the possibility Of paying the loan in
sterling a 81.
The controversy between Mr.. Hines
and railways representatives as to
whether the properties should be re-
turned in the physical state in which
they were taken over seems strange
from an ethical aspect 1t is as If a
borrower of an~article were not ex-
pected to make a return in the form
in which 1t was borrowed.
President Wilson's words should set
at rest the mooted point.
In his public statement Of December
in railway securities may rest as
sured that their rights and interests
will be as scrupulously looked after
by the Government as they could be
by the directors OF the several rail-
way systems" and "the properties
will be maintained during the period
of Federal control IN as good repair
and as complete equipment as when
taken over by the Government"
If this does not mean an unim-
paired restoration it means nothing
at all
Reaffirming the Governments
promise, the President in his address
TO Congress January 4, 1918. said at
is. am sure. you will agree with me.
right and necessary that the owners
and creditors of the railways, the |
holders of their stocks and bonds
should receive from the Government
an unqualified guarantee that their |
properties will be maintained through
out the period of Federal control in |
as good repair and as complete equip
ment as at present"
Further: TT is necessary that the |
values of railways securities should |
be justly and fairly protected, and |
that the large financial operation
every year necessary in connection
with the maintenance, operation and |
development of the roads should, dur |
ing the period of the war, he wisely |
related to financial operation of the !
Again: 1T is also an obligation Of |
public conscience and of public honor |
that the private interests we disturb
should be kept safe from unjust in
jury"
The concluding sentence Of that ad-
dress reads: I'm the hands of many /
thousands of small investors in the |
country, as well as IN national banks, |
in insurance companies, in savings
banks, in trust companies. in financial |
agencies of every kind, railway securi- |
ties, the sum total of which runs up |
to some ten or eleven thousand mill |
lions, constitute a vital part of the |
structure of credit, and the unques-
toned solidity of that structure must |
be maintained"