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

bonds two years ago. Their price
value today is ST., 10000, a net loss
of 1882, 900, the Worlds estimates
show.
The price Of paper marks declin-
ed after the peak, over cents, was
reached here, May, 26, 1920. The
price stayed around 5000 for a few
months and then slipped down in
waves until it touched $0.15 on Jan
uary Is, 1921. There were more fur
ries which carried the quotations in
ten days up to $0.01S and back to
that figure on May IL, 1921.
Then they sagged and sagged and
sagged. On September 10 they sold
under cent apiece and at the end
of the year for about a half cent.
The highest quotation since Jan
uary 1, 1922, was O.0O59 in that
month, and in August they touched
their bottom so far $0.00O5-2,000 pa
per marks for dollar. This month
they have been selling around
0.0007--1, 430 for a dollar. And bill
lions were sold and still are held
which cost SO a hundred marks, mil
lions that cost SIS hundred and tens
of thousands for which American
buyers paid So and $40 a hundred.
The buyers never have "squeal.
3D." never have thrown their bill
lions of marks on the market. Some
are still deluded.
Boston Hides "Sucker List"
From correspondents in big cities
throughout the United States, came
the estimates of a total purchase
Of 45,000,000, 900 paper marks. These
correspondents estimate that about
two-thirds Of this amount remains
in possession of the purchasers.
One interesting aspect of the
canvass of the big cities outside New
York is the positive refusal of bank
ing men in Boston to tell anything
about what the Yankee metropolis
did to itself in buying the paper
money Of the late enemy. Another
city, full of bankers who certainly
handled bales of paper marks and
still has them, is Milwaukee. The
bankers do not want to talk about it.
Milwaukee. one admitted, bought
twice as many German paper marks
as the added totals of St. Louis AID
Cincinnati. Many of her big brew
ers bought in the rate of a million
paper marks.
California was an enormous buyer
of marks and is one of the biggest
losers of all the states, according
to reports.
Brokers trading in German marks
opened offices all over the United
States. They hired hordes OF clerks
who spoke German and had them
telephone to every subscriber in the
directory whose name was suggest.
i've of the Teutonic. Lists of clut
memberships known to be Ger
manic of similarly identified corpora.
ton stockholders, gymnasiums
singing societies, even Of church
memberships, were rented from
office to office at high premiums.
Profit Forced on Banks
There is an odd human angle to
another practice of New York banks
in selling marks in drafts on Europe
Each draft bears q boldly-printed
warning that the issuer declines tc
be responsible for the demand made
on its foreign correspondent if de.
layed beyond sixty days. Those drafts
are out in thousands, unsolicited
and for millions of marks. The buy.
ers bought them to tuck away, hold
five years and cash in at a big pre-.
MUM. So they tucked them away
and they won't present the drafts
One big bank has sent a circular
urging cashing of it's foreign paper
to every customer who ever bought
any Of it. The drafts are still tucked
away.
Some foreign exchange specialists
thought they had the game beaten.
One Of them who buys millions in
foreign exchange every day and sells
1t. usually at a profit the same day,
says he put several thousand dollars
into paper marks, doubled his money
bought Berlin bank shares at 200 an6
sold them at 600, cashed in, sold pa
per marks at 2 cents, doubled his
money, bought a German estate al
the price Of a toy house, sold it at g
profit, and had then quadrupled his
investment.
A bad investment took one third OF
his doubled and redoubled capital ir
paper marks, and he decided to cash
in. He grinned in admitting that h,
had just 80 per cent of his origina
investment when it was transformed
into dollars again.
The question, What is the future
Of the mark?" is never heard except
in academic discussions. Bankers, al
a rule, see no valuable future fol
the mark. They look for an arbi
trary readjustment sooner or later
unless a colossal crash makes any
thing but reputation impossible.
TT = II An