Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-05-11
fANIC REMEDY.
year Of the Crueifixion

tuc BEcdtCSt pdulc kuOWu I'D ltS
history, says a writer in the Dear
born independent.
A vivid account of the panic is
found in the pages of Tacitus
and Seutonius. About year be-
fore the panic, trade reverses and
the loss of three richly laden
spice ships on the Red sea had
jeopardized the position of the
firm of Seuthes & Son of Alexan-
dria. A little later the firm of
Malchus & Co., at Tyre, with fac.
tories at Antioch and Ephesus,
went bankrupt owing to a strike
among their Phoeniciap workmen
and embeZzlement of the mana
ger. When it became known that
the great Roman banking house
of Quintus Maximus and Lucius
Vivo had loaned largely to both
Seuthes and Malchus, depositors
started run OH these banks. The
still larger house of the brothers
Pettius was inolved and in one
day all three banks closed their
doors.
This great Roman panic had all
the characteristics of a modern
panic. Banks in Corinth. Car
thage, Lyons and Byzantium went
down before the cyclone and af-
ter this nothing seemed able to
check the flood of insolvencies.
, One bank after another closed.
The II per cent legal rate was
set at naught by any man lucky
enough to possess ready money.
The praetor court was crowded
with creditors demanding the
auctioning of debtors houses,
slaves, warehouse stock or furni-
ture. The auctions were thinly
attended, for who could buyf
Valuable villas and racing studs
were knocked down for trifles.
Caught in the disaster many men
OF excellent credit and seemingly
ample fortune were reduced to
beggary.
The calamity seemed spreading
- over the empire and threatened
stoppage of all commerce and
industry when Gracious, the
praetor, unable to decide Between
the hosts of desperate debtors
aud equally desperate creditors,
invoked the aid and advice of the
senate. After hurried debate
the Gonseript Fathers dispatched
fast messenger, with a full
statement of the danger, to the
Emperor Tiberius, in his retreat
. at capri.
Fonr days later a vast throng.
slaves and millionaires elbowing
together, filled the forum while
the emperor's reply was read,
first TO the senate and then from
the open rostrum, to the waiting
people outside. Tiberius' accus-
toned good sense was apparent
IN his solution of the problem.
He ordered 100 millions sesterces
ID million dollars) to be taken
from the imperial treasury and
. distributed among bankers to be
loaned to the neediest debtors
no interest was to be collected
for three years.
Gradually, the Via Sacra ,the
Wall street of Rome) resumed it's
wonted aspect We are told by
the historian Stearns that few
banking houses and individuals
never recovered their losses, but
that the majority escaped perma-
nent suspension. ...
Undoubtedly, the crux of this
imperial remedy is found in the
canceling Of all interest obliga-
tiOns for three years. If such a
remedy could be applied to the
panic that is threatening, not one
but all empires and nations, be-
yond all question it would prove
more effective than any other
conceivable remedy. In the Unit
ed States alone, it would liberate
approximately five billion dollars
annually and appropriate it to
productive purposes rather than
to mere payment on dividends.
We have the high authority of
Governor Strong Of the Federal
Resere bank of New York city
that money cannot be used to pay
interest on debts and at the same
time to purchase goods.
Undoubtedly if the remedy by