New-York tribune., 1921-04-24

and burst into full bloom in the earl,
In the first four months Of that gear
it required no less than 3,720,000,000
yen to fill the demand for the promo
tion of her new business enterprises
and for the extension of her old estab
lished companies. The total amount
Of currency in actual circulation at
that time passed the 1,900,000,000 yen
mark. That meant about "a yen for
every man, woman and child in the
empire and told more eloquently than
anything else of the tremendous infa-
ton which was selling the land. Raw
silk-the queen of all our export COM
m modities-reached the unprecedented
price of 4,300 yen per 100 kin "a kin
equals 1.6 pounds, troy). In the pre-
silk stood as low as 884 yen per 100
kin.
Our foreign trade land Japan lives
largely by her foreign trade, as all
the world knows) rose in 1919 to the
unheard-of total of 4,500,000,000 yen;
and 2,200,000000 yen of that repre-
sented our exports. To the Japanese
ear this told the story as sweet as a
fairy dream. 1t told that since the
spring months of the year our exports
were exceeding our imports. 1t was
rare experience with Japan, and every
time it happened--and happened to
continue for any length of time-it
never failed to please our business
circles in an unreasonable manner
past all the understandings of our
American friends.
Moreover, this showing of 100000,
900 yen export business of ours repre-
sented about three times the volume we
had exported before the war in 1913.
1t did look, for time, as though japan
had the Far Eastern markets, if not the
whole Asian continental and South
Seas markets, by the tail. We heard
good deal of the revival of the postwar
activities of England and other Euro
pean powers and even of Germany after
few short years of adjustments;
heard also the insistent warnings from
the wiser among our own people, as
we'll as of those of our friends abroad,
urging us to strenuous efforts to hold
the markets which the war had given
to US. But we heard them just as any
youngsters drunk with the wine of easy
successes hear sage advice. And the
whole world Of Nippon was gay and
wild with the colorful follies of mari
kim" as we christened the sudden war
milionaires of ours.
Coming OF Crash
The inevitable came in the middle of
March, 1920 The stock market had
sudden sinking spell; by the first of
April it was showing the gravest signs
of the impending crash. And it came
with violence never before dreamed OF. .
Japan had never passed through the
American panic of 1907; she had never
had the experience of a financial and
business crisis of any large proper
tions before. But the lack of expert
ence does not answer for the atrocious
situation which came to pass. What
made our panic desperately cruel was
this: All through the latter half of
1919 Japanese spectators went abroad
and bought almost everything they
could buy-everything which in any
way seemed to promise hand
some returns to spectators. And with
the opening months of 1920 these
Japanese speculative purchases abroad
began to pour into Japan in a tre-
mendous and steady stream. In the
single month of March goods valued
at $50. 100000 yen reached Japan That
marked the climax of our imports.
They overflowed warehouses of every
description.
1t was at this critical time when the
goods were heaping higher and higher
on the piers that our merchants and
spectators faced tine second flood. 1t
came. from the opposite directions; it
was the deluge of cancelled orders from
their customers. Therefore our specu-
lators were between two floods, and be-
tween them all the war profits of which
they were so vain a short half year ago
were completely swept away. There
was nothing left but the chaos of the
wrecked and shattered remains of "war
bables.' Into this chaos almost all the
spectators tried to dump the goods
which were being shipped to them from
abroad for whatever they could get for
them. 1t was wild orgy of financial
harl-kari, and they committed it in
great haste and generously. They had
to do something; they did not know
what else to do. The Stock Exchange
closed. The Silk Exchange at Yoko-
hama closed. Spinning and weaving
mills were forced to close. There was
Cabinet meeting on May 25-the stu
alton called for heroic measures.
Liberal Credit Policy
1t got so bad that it practically
forced the government to come to the
rescue. The Nippon Ginko-our cen
tral bank-was ordered to adopt the
most liberal attitude in extending
credit accommodations to various
banking institutions in trouble. Our
authorities followed the example of the
United States in first choking off the
speculative activities by the simple
nr0NagG ~