AMERICAN FINANCIAL CRASH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2064, 16 December 1907, Page 1

AMERICAN FINANCIAL CRASH.

A NEW ZEALAND EYE-WITNESS’S -OBSERVATIONS. (Special to Times.) AVELLINGTON, Dec. 13. Air. C. Rattray, of Dunedin, returned to tho Do,minion yesterday from a trip abroad. He happened to bo in New York at tho height ol -the financial crisis and went to AVall Street with a wclll-known man, Air. ■J. H. Davis, who married Aliss ’ievwright, formerly of Dunedin. The cause of tho financial -trouble, Air Rattray informed me in the course of a brief chat I had with him in the street, was tbeover-capitalisationtlia.t had been going on. There had in consequence been a bit of a panic and a consequent .shrinking in valuesequal to about one hundred and forty millions sterling. AA'lien Air Rattray left America those interested did not see the end of it all, but wero malting desperate efforts to bolster up the position. Tho week after the Knickerbocker Trust closed, he said, one Sunday morning opposite one of the other Trusts Coy’s a- congregation of about forty people were waiting in the pouring rain for the doors of the institution to open the following Alondav. They had been waiting rae.-o since the bank closed on the previous Saturday. -It was, says Air Rattray, a pitiable sight. At’ that time Air Pierpont Alorgan was the man -if the hour, i.e., so Ifar as business men were concerned, but President Roosevelt was being cursed right and .left. They said lie was responsible for Rail His answer is that it is better to come to grips with tlio position now than have to face it later on when ihe difficulty will only havo increased. Air Morgan was loudly cheered on the Stock Exchange, which was a wonderful sight. Nearly all the stands tor the different classes of stocks a I out which people wero -formerly wont to congregate wero practically deserted and the only stand that attracted the members of tho Exchange was the money-lending one. Around this people were gathered in large numbers clamoring -for money at almost any pr ice.