The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-10
National Joy Ride Ended,
 Says Bankers President

products, it developed, were too well made to wear out in time to make room for next years production.
 The bubble broke: Fear succeeded confidence. Credit, so easy to obtain in the heyday of imitation, became s jewel prized because of it's rarity. The hot air of speculation evaporated from inflated values much more quickly than the water could be squeezed out of excessive security issues.
 That happened in 1920. Today we are convalescing.
 Convalescence is not pleasant. The stronger the man the more tedious the process.
 We are face to face today with some, thing more than the necessity of doing business on pre-war basis. We are forced to forget the dreams of yester- day. We are forced to forget what we deemed yesterday to be achievements built on quicksand, but which, never theless, seemed real only few short months ago. We stagger under the burden, not alone because of the weight of resumption upon a lower level, but because of the ghosts of defeated de- sires, defeated ambitions, because we are weak today by reason of the strength wasted in reaching forth a hand to touch the highest sector of the rainbow's curve--the spot where the colors were brightest and most beau tiful.
 The early history of the country shows that it suffered from a period of overexpansion and subsequent de. flati0n, which in certain respects, parallels our present situation. The early thirties were years of ..easy money" and 'teasy credit" Plenty of cheap money stimulated speculation. Enormous tracts of public lands were sold to settlers or to speculators. There were "boonsY in real estate, in cotton, in timber and in other commodities, Between 1884 and 1886, the sales of government land rose from less than $5,OO0,000 to nearly $25 5,OOO, 900 an- nually. In New York city the as- .sessed valuation of property rose in two years from $104, ,0OO, ,OOO to S253.- 1000, while in Mobile, Ala, the spe- culative fever ragged so furiously that property valued at $1, ,294,O0O in 1881 was rated in 1887 by speculative trad CTS as being worth $27,480, 900.
 Andrew Jackson's Order
 Great tracts of government land were exchanged for paper currency issued by banks of doubtful solvency. The situation alarmed President Jack son and in 1886 he issued the famous special circular"-an effort on his part to put a check to reckless in- flation, comparable, in fact, to the &C., tion of the federal reserve board in 1920, when it increased the discount rate. Jackson undertook to check overexpansion of currency; the federal reserve board directed it's attention against the overexpansion of credit. The purpose was the same-fhe result was the same.
 Jackson's order required payment for government lands to be in gold or sil- yer. It dealt a staggering blow to speculation. The banks then held less than $SS,000,OOO in specie, against $625, 100000 of outstanding notes. Few of them could redeem their cur rency and there were widespread sus- pensions. Everywhere there was dis tress. Men were thrown out of work in New York city there were bread riots. During the short period of 10 days in the spring of 1887, the busi-