Newspaper Page Text
ELBERTON. GA.
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Vol. IL No. 45.
Banks Are disked Tor a Sholv Dolvn.
New York, Dec 1. —A call upon the
national banks for a statement of
their condition of a very recent date
is expected by bankers here to come
from the comptroller of the currency
this week. Four of the five calls re
quired each year by law have already
been made, the last having shown the
condition of the national banks on
August 22. It is possible that the
call now anticipated will have an im
portant influence on the financial sit
uation. It is expected that it will re
veal large reserves of cash in the
country banks and this will tend to
restore confidence among depositors
to a degree which will make it easy
, to resume currency payments through
out the country. The banks, even in
normal times, usually prepare for a
call by strengthening their cash in
order to make a good showing, not
only to the comptroller, but to their
clients. Their statements are re
quired by law to be published in a
local paper, and they are also for
warded to Washington, where they
are compiled by cities and states.
Effect of a Call for Report.
The effect of a call for report of
condition on a fixed date, which is
usually a few days before the call
by the comptroller, is to enable the
banks to release cash after the call,
with the knowledge that another call
is not likely, in the natural order of
things, for about two months. In the
present situation, it is declared by
New York bankers, the call will show
that hoarding is not being done by
New York bankers —as, indeed, their
deficiencies in required reserves al
ready indicate —but that many of the
interior banks have reserves running
up to such proportions as 40 or 50
per cent of deposits. The facts will
reach the public by individual banks
through publication locally and then
will come to the public generally
through the compilations made by the
comptroller.
If large reserves in lawful money
in their own vaults are revealed gen
erally by the reports, it will at once
inspire confidence in the strength of
the banks and create a demand which
they will no longer be disposed to re
sist, after sending in their reports,
'A for the immediate resumption of cur
rency payments.
Financial Men Fear Inflation.
It is significant of the change in
financial opinion that most of the
discussion amongst financial men last
week dealt with the dreaded effect of
a state of inflation of the currency,
into which it v r as feared the country
might emerge with the passing of the
effects of irrational distrust. The
bringing forward of this subject into
debate while the premium on the cur
rency was being paid yet and other
active measures for relief of the cur
rency famine being pursued, was due
Ito the plain lesson of experience in
Vast crises of a similar kind. In all
0 these the first return of eonfidence
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON.
and the re-establishment of credit
have brought a condition of actual
redundancy of the money market, a
heavy accumulation of banking re
serves and a free export movement
of gold.
Return Flow of Gold.
While the enormous mass of gold
that has flowed to the United States
in response to the urgent require
ments developed by the crisis is ad
mittedly in excess of the normal re
quirement of the coming period, the
return flow of gold is bound to have
a njpn favorable effect on financial sen
timent, and in the event of its undue
stimulation by any inflation of paper
note issues, which would tend to force
out gold, the danger of a check being
added to the recovery in commercial
activity is taken anxious account of.
The decision of the United States
treasury department to limit the al
lotments of 3 per cent treasury notes
and to accept on more bids for them
was the outcome of this new phase
of the situation which the turn toward
normal conditions has developed. The
opinion of the treasury department
that the secretary may call in these
certificates before their one-year pe
riod has expired and so provide for
the immediate requirement of all
bank notes issued against them of
fers another resource for contraction
in the event of any symptom of in
flation.
To Find Employment for Gold.
Tn another direction it is hoped to
find permanent and substantial em
ployment for a large amount of the
gold that has been rushed to the
United States as a relief measure.
The commission appointed by Gover
nor Hughes to consider changes in the
New York state banking laws is en
joined to report conclusions by the
15th of December. While the exact
terms to be expected to the recom
mendation of this commission can not
be foreseen, it is taken for granted
that they will include drastic reform
in the requirements upon trust compa
nies for holding cash reserves. The
recent crisis has demonstrated the
inadequacy of present reserve re
quirements for trust companies do
ing an active banking business, which
most of them do. It is pointed out
also that a more favorable moment
for effecting this reform could hard
ly be chosen than the period now be
lieved to be approaching, when the
heavy inflow of foreign gold will be
found superfluous for the diminished
needs of the circulation and will tend
to flow out again.
Nearly $100,000,000 of Gold Engaged.
The engagement of nearly SIOO,
000,000 of gold for import, of which
approximately $60,000,000 has been
received, the deposit with the nation
al banks of about $67,000,000 of gov
ernment funds and the issue of new
bank notes to the amount of about
$40,000,000, have met the present re
quirement* and opened the way to
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, December 5, 1907.
the resumption of cash payments by
the banks, now clearly at hand. The
disappearance of the premiums on
currency which, by alternative state
ment of terms is a discount on bank
checks, will herald the restoration
to use of many instruments of credit
which share in some of the functions
as money and of which the driving
out of use forced the extraordinary
demand for actual cash. The re-es
tablishment of credit is expected to
lead to a prompt resumption of ex
change operations between the dif
ferent money centers in this country,
the dislocation of which has formed
the most serious embarrassment to
the conduct of commercial operations.
—Atlanta Constitution.
IS OUR CREDIT IN A BAD WAY?
November 9, 1907.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.
• Dear Sir: We have been told, the
past week, by Mr. Geo. Gould, that
our credit in Europe is in a bad way,
and lays it on Judge Landis’ 11 mon
strous fine” which he calls 11 confis
catory. ” He defends the Standard
Oil Company, and calls Morgan “a
lamb.” It is peculiarly fitting that
the son of the man who was “a
Democrat in a democratic district,”
and “a Republican in a republican
district,” who first systematized the
debauchery of the legislative and ju
dicial part of the Public Service, and
whose fortune was built upon a long
and sinuous line of wrecks, equaled
only by the trail behind the 11 Steward
of God,” should defend him.
Meantime “the panic” could not
be made to work, or even to be taken
seriously, outside of localities where
the “Standard Oil banks” were dom
inant.
It is significant that Judge Gary,
of the steel trust, and other trust
leadejfc, after conferring with the
President, as announced, are admon
ishing each other and kindred con
cerns to revise their methods in con
formity with the public demands for
honest things. They are evidently
running with the hare, while 26
Broadway and Morgan are hunting
with the hounds.
This all makes me think of Gen,
Joe Shelby’s trooper who had lost
his mount. Shelby, by the way, was
a fighter, who called his soldiers
“boys,” and they rode together to
death or victory, with a mutual af
fection known only to brave men.
This dismounted trooper took the
mule of an old farmer in northwest
ern Arkansas and made for camp.
The old farmer followed him so close
ly as to be able to find and identify
his mule, and reported the matter to
General Shelby, who sent promptly
for the man and the mule, After satis
fying himself of the facts, told the
man to take his animal and go home;
that he would have the offender shot
promptly at sundown. A» soon as
Price Five Cents.
the farfiier was out of sight he turned
‘to the trooper and said, “Now, go
to your quarters, and if you ever
steal another mule and get caught at
it, I will have you shot.”
The country knows the president
to be an honest man, and without
fear, and a great majority believe
him to be the only man who is thor
oughly equipped, has the essential in
side knowledge, and the courage, both
moral and physical, to make the fight
io a finish, for a “square deal.”
While we all know that he can not
do everything at once, it is believed
that these people can not fool him at
all. That when the time comes he
will tackle the system under which
they cry from the housetops, “Stop
thief 1” while a constant stream of
the people’s life and blood (through
the tariff) is going into their cellars.
Mr. Bryan’s purpose is undoubt
edly honest and patriotic, and his
voice will ring out when the proces
sion moves, somewhere along the line.
But he appears to me to have ac
quired the habit of letting loose too
much to “spit on his hands.” But sup
pose Mr. Roosevelt fails, that Mr.
Bryan fails, or all leaders now in the
limelight fail, “the spirit of ’76” is
abroad, and the great mass of citi
zens are determined to have better
things.
Wm. Allen White, of Kansas; Cum
mins, of Iowa; Folk, of Missouri;
LaFollette, of Wisconsin; Deneen, of
Illinois; Hughes, of New York; Tom
Johnson, of Ohio; Vardaman, of Mis
sissippi; Glenn, of North Carolina;
Comer, of Alabama; Broward, of
Florida; and the noblest Roman of
them all, Tom Watson, of Georgia,
are marking time, with hundreds of
thousands behind them.
When the right man’s bugle rings
out they will all march under the
banner of honest things, the result
not at all uncertain.
AN OLD FARMER?
New Boston, Mich.
THE AGE OF THE EARTH.
Although it is not considered polite
to inquire too closely into the age of
a lady, the scientists will keep both
ering Mother Earth about hers. Dr.
R. F. Scharff, of the Dublin Museum,
believes that the oldest and most per
manent forms of the earth’s surface
can be ascertained by a study of the
distribution of the present forms of
animal life. He finds that animals
found east of the Rockies were com
paratively unknown on the western
slopes until modern times. But al
most identical forms are found in
Europe—Austria particularly.
This leads to the belief that ax
some time this continent had been
connected with Europe by a strip
of land, and that the part of North
America now west of the Rocky
mountains had been submerged. He
also declares it proven that North
and South America were not joined
together until the middle of the ter
tiary period, many thousands < J
years ago, but geologically speaking,
very recently. —Louisville Herald.
