Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-10-05

| XNOIE-FtaClO OF QeClln0 III Ie
that of depreciation in marks mt
in estimates.
bankers, brokers, foreign exchange
| dealers here and throughout the
| country agree that German speak
| ing buyers took 80 per cent of the
German paper marks bought for
| America.
easy Money"
The lure of speculation made sue
cessful business men in America get
German paper marks quick, paying
big premiums, fearing they would be
too late for the great garnering of
dream profits. Right after the sign
ing of the Versailles peace treaty in
July, 1919, they paid for German
paper marks as high as half their
par price, "a cents, which the paper
mark commanded before the war.
They paid more than paper marks
were selling for In Germany's neigh
Dor countries. This easy money
mirage made millions Of Americans,
men Of large salaries, take their
savings out Of the banks and, buy
Germany's paper promises. 1t emp
tied the little iron safes in 100000
cupboards. It sent millions Of dol
lars in Liberty bonds to market
here to get money to invest in Ger.
many's paper marks. And it still is
taking it's toll in pennies today where
it was SO bills yesterday.
Germany sold her paper money
not at home to the loyal and those
familiar with that financial medium.
She sold it abroad. She sold it where
it never had been seen before except
in the hands of tourists-in America.
She sold it so fast that the outside
world took all she printed during one
period Of months, February to July,
1921. At the same time the mad
millions Of foreign buyers pulled out
of Germany billions Of marks which
had circulated there. This was be.
cause the government printing press
es could not supply the demand
abroad, fro mAmerica and elsewhere.
Trap for Greed
|, Only few bankers bought them.
A star Of the screen, a man,
bought a million paper marks in
New York early in the market and
paid high price for them. He has
them still.
A Germanic American banker in a
western city holds 100000 paper
mark currency bank notes, his own.
Every big gambler in foreign ex-
change has tried everything short
Of safe blowing and q stick-up in
fruitless efforts to borrow them for
speculative purposes, They have
not stirred the bank vaults. The big
buyers were the first to buy, paid
the top prices and are holding on
the most tightly.
Human greed never before betray-
ed SO many millions Of men of all
grades Of intelligence and prosperity
into such a trap, plastered all over
with the warnings of common sense
land business experience. Even Ber-
lin weakly whispered a warning to
the banking world. The riot of
speculation in her paper money was
certain to have it's aftermath Of ex-
cessive imitation in which she, too,
should suffer.
| German paper mark bank notes
are more plentiful than cigar store
coupons everywhere. The children
use them for toy money. Push cart
men sell them for a few pennies a
bundle in the municipal open mar
kets. Peddlers hawk them in Wall
street, on Park row and in the night
life districts Of Broadway. Cigar
stores give them as premiums, and
thriftily, too, because they can be
bought ten marks for cent and
the cigar store coupon that is not
worth one-fourth of cent in trade
Is taboo. The German paper money
Is an aristocrat among paupers be-
cause the Austrian kronen and the
soviet ruble come in millions for q
quarter.
Peak of Reckless Buying
Gambling in stocks was at it's peak
Of recklessness in 1919. Petroleum
stocks, the leading element of that
speculation, began to stale just
when the Germaic buying of the
paper mark began to attract wide
attention. The purchasers had been
saying for months that Germany
will be the first to recover. She
never was invaded. She has every
thing to go ahead with that she ever
had" Everybody talked as If it
were a matter Of months only.
The paper mark was returned to
this market about July Is, 1919, and
offered at S0.0S56, the rate of ex-
change agreed upon a few weeks
previously in Berlin by the finan.
cial representatives Of the American
relief, the German finance minister
and Of the reichsbank,' the bank of
note issue, which prints the marks
The price ran down to cents in
August, 1 cent about the first OF
1920, started up in February and
rose from $0.01 per mark to $0.0315
German bonds were being weIcom
ed into the New York market at the
same time. Municipal bonds OF
Hamburg, Of Berlin and the German
government bonds were the leading
issues, the media OF heavy invest
ment here. German municipal bonds
paying per cent sold at a premium
; Of rs to so per cent
Bonds Follow the Mark
The German municipal bonds have
declined in value in exactly the same
ratio as the depreciation of the Ger
man paper mark. This is so depend
able as a basis for estimating their
present value, the foreign bond de
partment chief of a local house
says, that he trusts to it in max
ing instant bids on offers by tele
phone of bonds of smaller German
cities, bonds unfamiliar to his
books. He handles as large a bust
ness in German bonds as any man
] in America. And he says that Ger
man stocks are gone below bidding
} for. twenty-five billion paper marks
bought in America for 100000 ,00C
were turned into such stocks and