The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-09-07
10 THOUSAND SUICIDES
AFTER FINANCIAL CRASH
THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS OF
DOLLARS MADE DURING WAR
ARE LOST IN ONE DAY.
TRADE AT A STANDSTILL
With Slump in Business Men Who
Were Recently Millionaires Are
Now Paupers. American Goods
Being Reshipped to This Country.

Were Recently MlilIonalres Are
Now Paupers. American Goods
Being Reshipped to This Country.
SAN FRANCISCO.-Japan has
learned her lesson.
But at what a cost! Scores of
banks and hundreds of prominent
merchants and manufacturers have
failed, unable to pay a cent on the
dollar; thousands of men, a few
months ago rated as millionaires, are
dead by their own hand, and the en-
tire trade of the nation, with the
exception of that in the bare neces-
sites, is at a standstill.
Why? Overspeculation and insult
ficient knowledge of international
financial methods, say American
business men who have just return
ed.
From comparative poverty at the
beginning of the war to the largest
per capita wealth of any country in
the world-this tells the story of
japanese progress until March last,
Business men and farmers, short
lv after the outbreak of the Euro
pean conflict, found themselves ~ith
so much money that speculative
schemes of all kinds grew like mush-
rooms in the country. Shipbuilding
plants, large and small manufactur-
ing industries, wildcat oil and min
ing concerns soon dotted the islands.
Stocks Tumble With Crash.
Spectators, dreaming of contin-
ued prosperity, ordered goods from
the United States far in excess of
actual demands. Instead of 1000
miles of steel rails required import
firms contracted for 10000.
Silk rose from normal value of
1,4OO yen per bale to 1890 yen.
Suddenly, with other nations rap
idly settling down to peace basis,
foreign buying stopped and the Jap
anese found the balance of trade
rapidly shifting against them.
On March II, 1920, the market
broke. In one day stocks dropped
on an average of 20 per cent. In
three days a total drop of 33 per
cent average was recorded.
The exchange was closed for ten
days; banks which had advanced
enormous sums to importers who
found themselves unable to sell their
stocks and pay their debts failed
and a general financial crisis, the
first the nation had encountered,
resulted. Mogi & Co., the largest
silk exporters in the country, were
called upon to pay loan of 5O,-
100000 yen. Unable to do so they
failed. bringing down with crash
all other silk dealers.
Thousands of millions made during
the war were lost in a day. Credit
could not be secured and people ev-
erywhere began to hoard cash.
American goods shipped to the
japanese are now being reshipped
to this country at little more than
so per cent. of the original price.
American rOSlI, lOIIACAly SSHAAAS CIV
S19, is now being shipped from
Kobe, Japan, at S11, while selling
at sis at New Orleans, point of
production.
The japanese credit balance in the
United States is entirely wiped out.
American exporters are suffering
from the closing of the japanese
market. but importers are buying
rapidly to take advantage of the un-
precedented low prices.
10000 Commit Suicide.
In Yosaka, Japan, 800 merchants
and bankers, poor men before the
war but millionaires before the
crash, committed suicide rather than
face poverty again. 1t is estimated
by Americans in Japan at the time
that more than 10000 japanese kill
ed themselves rather than face the
situation.
But out of it all Japan is rapidly
emerging solvent Banking methods
are being reorganized, speculation
has stopped, and the finances of the
nation, under the direction of the
government, are being put on
sound basis.