POVERTY IN AMERICA

Evening Star, Issue 20983, 23 December 1931, Page 9

POVERTY IN AMERICA

WHOLE COUNTRY DEPRESSED COLLAPSE OF GAMBLING BOOM Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 22. (Received December 23, at 12.15 p.m.) " They have no faith in anything. I have never seen America so depressed," said Sir Arthur Duckham (tho well-known industrialist), on returning from a visit to the United States. " The gambling boom has finished. The people have not even the money to pay the margins on which they bought. They switch of! their oltico lights from motives of economy. They are trying to carry the unemployed on charity. The employers guarantee that their staff's will contribute a portion of their salaries to charity, but it cannot be done in that way. The dole seems inevitable. A satisfactory feature is the admiration for the manner in which England has tackled her troubles."BANKER'S PESSIMISTIC REPORT CRISIS APPROACHING. .Washington; December 22. , (Received December 23, at 1 p.m.), President Ecker, of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which is the largest organisation of its kind in America, painted a startling picture of American economic conditions before the Senate's Banking Committee. He said the country was in a worse condition now than in last June, and a crisis was approaching. His company had lent 416,000,000d01. to its policy holders to tide them over the period of distress. He intimated that his company would not continue making further advances. Mr Ecker pointed to the condition of the railways as a special index of the seriousness of affairs. Ho said the railways next year would have 253,000,000d0l in securities coming due, and only two lines, with less than a tenth of the sum due, could meet their obligations.