BOOM IN THE STATES.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 3 October 1919, Page 4

BOOM IN THE STATES.

ENORMOUS PROFITS. The United States hts lately been experiencing the hectic delights of one of the greatest “booms”, in history. If she is not wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, it is because there is no limit to avarice. The country has doubled its foreign tradesmen the war began, and it has, in addition, bought back, largely from British holders, American securities valued at eight hundred millions sterling. The effect on many industries of the enormous demand from Europe for munitions during the latter part of 1911 was amazing. One of the directors of the great Bethlehem Steel Company thought ho had done extremely well, after the boom, had started some little time, in selling out his shares at SO, but he has since had the mortification of seeing the shares reach nearly 700. It is not so many years since “dollar wheat” was the dream of every American grower, and Frank Morris once wrote ja novel which practically centred on I the forcing up of llie price to that level |in the Chicago Exchange, the famous I “wheat pit.” To-day the price is fixed at 2 dollars 25 cents per bushel. 'Farmers by thousands have paid off their mortgages, and still have more .money to spend than they ever had before.

One consequence of the extraordinary

amount of loose money that is floating about in the States is great activity in the share markets. Many of the people who have now “money to burn never gave a thought, in former times, 'to the Stock Exchange.; now they cannot lie kept out of it, arid hundreds htive added to their fortunes. The

craze has infested all classes. A streetfruit seller in New York, who had

saved u few hundred dollars, “played up” his earnings, and is now a wealthy ■man for life or until lie tiics. to double his gains by further speculations. An attendant in a Turkish bath •made 20,b00 dollars in a week by transtions in shares. Iho ncwly-rich 'public hears of authentic cases such as these, and forthwith seeks a still

shorter cut than the war afforded it to fortunes greater than those it was amassing while Europe was fighting. It is not a very healthy state of affairs, but it is one that may confidently be expected to cure itself before long.