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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.