Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-10-10
GAMBLERS LOSE
Those Who Bought German Marks Are
Out Millions.

Out Millions.
| Gambling in German marks has cost
Americans from a billion to two billion
dollars, writes Edward NJ. Thiery.
People are still buying marks and
other foreign paper money" but the
big flood of'speculation suddenly stop
ped a few weeks ago.
Bankers report that buying was go
ing on in large amounts in spite Of
their warnings that purchase Of Ger
man marks was a speculation and not
an investment. 1t is believed that even
the widest spectators have now
reached the conclusion that the bubble
has burst, wiping out dreams of i'm
mense profits.
Estimates of the amount of Ameri-
can money spent for marks can be
made better in Germany than in this
country" said DR.. B. NJ. Anderson, Jr.,
economist of the Chase National Bank.
81 have seen estimates ranging from
81 900, 100000 to $4,000, 100000. Person
ally 1 wouldn't know how to guess.
National Loss is Large, But so Diffus-
ed No Credit Problem is Created.
Speculation in German marks has
been a big national loss, but it is so
diffused that no credit problem has
been created. / know Of no institution
or individual suffering a serious loss.
1.-THE most serious thing about it is
the generalization of Germany which
the crash in marks indicates. Demoral-
ization in Germany is most serious OF
course for her closer neighbors-
France, Great Britain, Holland, Bel
gium and the Scandinavian countries
but it is very serious for the United
States also. Germany has been one of
our best customers and a prosperous
germany is needed to balance the
worlds economic life"
DR.. Anderson pointed out that while
Germany as whole has suffered very
greatly in the financial decentralization,
good many individual German specu-
lators have piled up immense profits.
Foreseeing the decline in the mark,
they borrowed marks on a great scale
and used them to buy foreign curren-
cies-dollars, sterling, etc.,-or to buy
goods, common stock or corporations,
and other things whose value would
not decline with the mark.
After the fall Of the mark these
spectators could sell a small part Of
their purchases for enough marks to
pay back their debts, retaining the
greater part of the real values they
had purchased. Hugo SHINES is sup
posed to have built up much Of his
great fortune by this method.
Other countries have plunged in Ger
man marks Spain is said to have put
l, 200, 100000 pesetas into marks by the
end Of 1920.
AS recently as last week an Italian
put $40 into German marks at the
rate Of Z cents a hundred, receiving
100000 marks (Which before the war
were worth $5O,OOO) At the New York
bank where he bought them he was
warned that he might lose his $40.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, grinning, "but
may make a million!"
Bell Boy, Elevator Man and Doorman
Owners of Millions in Marks.
A small New York hotel has a bell
boy, an elevator operator and door
man who own several million Polish
marks, a million German marks, and
several hundred thousand French
francs and Italian lire.
Meanwhile reports from Germany
say that women there are protecting
their savings by putting doubtful paper
money into silk stockings-somethinS
they can sell later!
How widespread American specula-
ton in German marks has become is
indicated by a letter received by a New
York bank from a small banker in
Texas asking whether marks were
good investment" He was told they
were 'long shot gamble"
Bankers, believe, granting the i'm
possibility of a recovery in German
marks, that they will either go so low
that they will cease to be used as
means of barter, or else there will be
official repudiation.
In either case American spectators
will have one or two billion dollars
worth of wallpaper on their hands.