AMERICAN CONDITIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 15, 28 October 1932, Page 7

AMERICAN CONDITIONS

PROCESS OF "DE-BOOMING." /Special to the "Guardian.") AUCKLAND, Oct. 27. Described on the list of distinguished passengers as ".Capitalist, of San Francisco, on a pleasure trip," Mr E. L. Malsbary arrived by the Monterey. He spoke of the "mad wave of speculation" that swept over' the United States before the boom broke, and remarked that he could not understand the minds of the speculators who bought stocks with a total disregard of their dividend-paying capacity. All that the speculator had in mind was to buy to sell, and many of the shares purchased were not returning even 1 per cent. "You do see something for your money wEen you back a horse," he said with a smile, "but thousands of people who gambled on the stock market got nothing for their invseetments. Many of these people were ordinary workers and tradesmen who were obsessed with the idea that there was money in anything they bought on the Stock Exchange."

Referring to real estate, Mr Malsbary said farms and city lots were in the process of "de-booming." Many people had bought farms at liigh prices when produce was at the-peak, and had suffered in consequence. "It is not a local failing," he said, "but a world-wide happening." In a - recent trip through the United States he had had a conversation with a man on the land who was a bit of a philosopher. "Hard times have not come," was his comment, "but easy times have gone." Mr Malsbary stated that he was a Republican, and had always voted that way, and he thought that it was unfair to blame Mr Hoover for tile depression. 'Some of the Australian States had had Labour'Governments, but that had not stopped the depression. No one set of' statesmen or politicians was to, blame for the aftermath of the war.