FINANCIAL SICKNESS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1947, 2 January 1914, Page 3

FINANCIAL SICKNESS.

I OLD QUESTION OF MONEY. SYMPTOMS IN BRITAIN AND - GERMANY. •''We talk of tin's question or that as supremo, but I sometimos wonder whether a greater than them all is . not knocking at tho doors of salesmen," ivritcs "H.W.M." in tho "Nation." "I moan tho old question of money— of how to run this thriftless world of gee-gaws and expenso. Olio hears much of the bad German. situation. Tho other day, at a dinner tablo haunted by City men, I heard the English position discussed quite as gravely. All wore pessimistic; the most hopeful conclusion was that the trouble would take tho form of alin gsring malaise rather than a catastrophe—Stato credit, it was thought, might savo that—so that instead of a great breakage like Baring's or Ovcreiid and Gurney's, _ one might merely witness a long, continuous sloughing off of present. values, until somo ' firm, healthy tissue was readied. Cost of Armaments. _ "The symptoms of the general financial sickness —the high bank rate, the immense export of capital to South America, the heavy commitments of the great houses in Mexican and Brazilian ventures, the solid mass of over-capital-ised or unfloatable securities, tho weak; ne«s of one or two big firms, and, abovo all, tho enormous demands for, and tho cost of, armaments—are, of course, common property. But I confess I was surprised to find liow lieavily a rather Conservative gathering dwelt on tho curse of armaments and their strong association with something like an approaching bankruptcy of States—big and little. "When one remembers that, as the 'Economist' calculates, our own Government lias in six years added, in new additions to the Naval Estimates, a sum which at 3J- per cent, interest means a capital of over ,£450,000,000, ono winders wliat tho Cabinet are really doing with the Estimates. Do not they realise what the position in tho City is? And what may any day come of it unless the brake is put on?" A Templo of Force. Herr Bernstein, one of . the German Socialist leaders, lias a notablo article ■in the same'issue of the "Nation," in which lie calls attention to the financial condition of Germany and gives another side to the picture presented by our Cinsul-General at Dusseldorf in "Public Opinion." He begins by referring to the big memorial erected ,in remembrance of the Battlo of Leipzig, in the south of tho town, close by its southern cemetery. "This memorial solemnly, dedicated to tho nation on October 18, in. tho presence of the Kaiser, of princes, ambassadors, officers of the army, Parliamentarians, burgomasters; ' professors—in short, of officialdom—separated from tho masses by a considerable levy, of soldiers 'and policemen, is a liugo construction, of. stone and brick', a, sort of Temple • ofForce, protected by a ring of twelve coloured, male figures. ' In its'roassivencss it mayimprcss the spectator as imposing, but of beauty.'and grace it has none. Beginning To Feel the Pinch. "Force is tho'idol of the day. It dominates public opinion to fi dreadful degree. ' c begin now to feel seriously tho pinch .of tho financial sacrifices devoted in'tho'spring of this year to milt tarism. ...All: tho hopes of a lowering of • the Bank l rate, which for months and months has been 6 per cent., have hitherto remained unfulfilled., "Tho .amount of gold iii tho cellars of the Imperial Bank (the Ileichsbaiik) lias enormously increased. In tho week ended October 23 it was 1219 millions of marks, against 886 millions of marks in tho corresponding week of tho last year. Tho wliolo legislation of years on. the issue of bank liotes was directed to tho purpose of drawing gold into tho Imperial .Bank, and it has in a high degree achieved its end. In tho third week of October, 1912, the issue of notes, of the Imperial Bank was covered by 66.6 pei' cont. of liard_ metal and Imperial Treasury notes. This year tho cover is 78.8 pjbir cent. . . Unemployment in Germany. "Butsigns are not: wanting that trado is already in a precarious.state, 'lhis is ccrtainly.true;of the homo.trade-of tlio Empire, i though tho figures of the foreign trade still read favourably—a common occurrence, . because fofeigu ■tradeis.always pushed with particular energy when business is slack at homo. The report of tho Labour Exchanges of the Empire for August. 1913 (tlio latest available, monthly. report), shows 173 applicants for cvory 100 open places, whilst in August, 1912, the comparative figures had been 146 to 100. Fortyeight reporting German trade unions had in August, 1913, 2.8 per of their members unomployed, against 1.7 in August, 1912. These figures do not •includc the building tVados, where tho. percentage of unemployed members rose from 3.8 per cent, in August, 1912, to 6.7 per cent, in August, .1913. Tho building industry suffers particularly, badly from the high money rate. The Cost of Living. "Thus, if wo aro not yet in a state of absolute stagnation, trade at Home is is lifeless, and complaints aro beard everywhere, tlio mpro so because the prices of the necos'sarios of life, instead of falling, aro still rising. Tho taxes on food, on tlio ono sido, and the policy of tho powerful syndicates' in raw material on the other, hinder the arriv.il of ■ the reduction in the cost of life ~';iich, in former years, used to mitigate to somo extent tho bad cffects'of slack trade. ■ ' "How life has. become dearer m the new century is illustrated, inter alia, in a statistical treatise published in the latest issue of the 'Deutsche Bankbcamte,' tho official organ of the Union of Bank Employees. According to its carefully-drawn tables, tho cost-of life of a family of four beads in industrial Saxony, (two grown-up people and two children) have, taking only necessaries, risen from 19.98 marks in August, 1896, i and 20.91 marks in August, 1900, to 24,08 marks in August, 1911, and 26.02 • marks in c August, '1913. Tilings aro 1 not better in other parts of the Empire ; everywhere the cry is that dear--1 ness will not subside."' . ' •