THE AMERICAN PANIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3778, 17 December 1907, Page 4

THE AMERICAN PANIC.

Some curious scenes were witnessed in New York during the recent financial panic. Many of the depositors in the various banks threw to the winds all counsels of commousense, and proceeded to raid the bank premises in uproarious fashion. On August 23 an all-night vigil was kept by about 200 determined depositors in front of the main offices of the Trust Company of America in Wall Street. They huddled together, shivering in the icy wind, but refused to leave the queue even to get warm at the neighouring restaurants. One depositor arrived at 10 o’clock at night with his wife, his mother, and bags of provisions. Camp stools were arranged on the pavement and the entire family spent Ihe night in the open. .In the meantime, of course, the Trust Company had been preparing for the trouble that was to come. Great bundles of crisp bank notes and small barrels of silver dollars were unloaded from vans during the night, and when the doors were opened at ten the cashier’s desk presented an imposing appearance. Extra clerks had been engaged to pay accounts, and they stood entrenched behind rows of bills representing ,£15,000. As the crowd streamed into the office, the depositor who had brought his family being first at the desk, the president of the company shouted : ‘ ‘ Take your time ; we are going to pay all accounts. ’ ’ The withdrawals continued steadily until the early part of the afternoon, but all demands were met without delay, and the public became reassured. Some depositors who had withdrawn their money paid it in again, and others were satisfied to let their savings stay when they saw that there was no difficulty about withdrawals. The whole trouble simply showed how utterly unreasonable the public can be on occasions. No banking institution in the world can hold supplies of coin sufficient to meet all liabilities, because it is necessnry that the money deposited should be investad in order that it may earn interest. The New York public had the assurance of the Secretary of the United States Treasury and of all the most prominent financiers that the leading banks were perfectly solvent, and yet they bersisted in starting a “ run ” that very nearly produced a financial disaster of the first magnitude.