Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1914. BUSINESS AND CURRENCY IN AMERICA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 5 March 1914, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1914. BUSINESS AND CURRENCY IN AMERICA.

TARING a New Year survey of the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States, President Wilson remarked that there wasbut one cloud on the horizon—that, of course, being the'trouble in Mexico. Colonel George Harvey, however, in the editorial notes which he now contributes himself to the "North American Review," challenges this optimistic view of things. He cites several matters that seem to menace national wellbeing. Prominent among these is, a marked business depression. He recalls the fact that the Secretary of the Treasury, in a report made to Congress at the beginning of last December, noted that "a feeling of unrest began, to pervade business circles last April," and ' thereupon proceeded to congratulate the: country upon what he asserted to. .be the beneficial effect of his announcing that,] £100,000,000 of emergency currency pro-! vided by the Aldrich Vreeland Act j would be issued forthwith if the banks; should require it to "ease the situation.". According to Colonel Harvey money stringency was not the trouble,: yet the ', Secretary, having heard that money was, required to move the crops, requested j Western and Southern banks to accept I the useVof £10,000,000 from the* Treasury vault. Some -of the bankers yielded to the temptation to the extent- of ; taking in all seven of the ten millions ] urged upon them, but there was not | then," nor later, any currency famine. "It j is not," s ays Colonel Harvey, "lack of j money that makes for the existing depression in business j it is lack of confidence. Nothing could be more (fallacious than, the notion which apparently possesses this Administration that; ex-, parision of .credits - is the sole requisite of commercial activity. The real essen-. i tial is the market.. Prudent manufac-... turers do not borrow money, even when > they can obtain it upon easy terms, for, the sake of paying interest; they seek it only when they can use it to advantage in providing goods that-can be'sold promptly and, profitably.' * President Wilson evidently thinks ihat, prompt passage of the Currency Bill now before Congress would start the wheels of industry a-whirring, but Colonel Harvey holds him to be mistaken in the idea that nothing more is required than "to set credit free from arbitrary and artificial restraints," which is the professed aim of the Currency Bill. . In the same number of the "North American Review" Mr Horace White discusses the Currency Bill in detail, and in doing so makes some shrewd comments on the futility and even danger of Government interference in the conduct of the delicate operations carried out by the banking institutions of the country. "Credit," he remarks, "is belief. It is a plant of slow growth. It cannot be moved hither and thither by Acts of Congress or by stump speaking. If a belief prevails in the community that certain persons are safe custodians of money, then people who desire safe places for money will hand it over to them in the form of deposits. If the belief prevails that these or other persons' are sagacious investors and. good judges of .securities, people who have money to invest will bring it to such persons to be invested. This is the whole secret of the 'Money Trust.' Financial beliefs cannot be transferred by outside influence or by coercive legislation any more than religious beliefs can be so changed. If, the magnates of Wallstreet had only their money to .operate with, their business would be small indeed. They would not require spacious

offices or an army of coupon clippers. It is the incoming and outgoing of other people's money, from which a shaving is taken, that fills their coffers. If they were all banished or knocked on the head to-morrow, the lonesome. seeker after credit would be no better off than before, but rather worse. The people who have money to invest would never find him, whereas the Money Trust would surely find him sooner or later if he -had anything of value to'offer. That is what they exist for. If they did not find such things they would soon go out of business, without being banished or knocked on the head."