The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10. THE FINANCIAL PANIC.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 10 December 1907, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10. THE FINANCIAL PANIC.

Hurricanes, blizzards, conilagralions, bursting reservoirs, railway horrors, ; panics, crashes, smashes, every vibration in America is upon the largest scale. Tliere is nothing mean nor halfheai tt'il about her sensations, whatever .shape they may_ lake. It is now many years since she indulged in the luxury of a liuunci.'.l panic, but there have been times when her performances in this direction have been of the very grandest magnitude, in the course of such pa-roxyi-,ms the eery ohlcm. Wrongest, moat of her financial institutions and mercantile houses have come tumbling to the dust, aud ruin, widespread, lias prevailed throughout the land. Within the past month America reached the vergi—perhaps it would be more correct to say she got over the rim—of one such linancial catastrophe. Several of her reputedly powerful institutions came tottering to earth, and an avalanche of disaster threatened to fall upon the whole people. To avert the impending doom, heroic measures i were taken. The Government rushed forward with assurances, the doors of the Treasury were thrown open, millions were advanced, and millions more were

hurried across the Atlantic from England and France. Gradually panic was allayed, slowly confidence returned, Su-

preme effort was crowned with success. To-day, finance and commerce are llowing along their accustomed channels, and the whole matter has been reduced to the dimensions of a mere incident. The

incident, however, serves to mark one of the vast advances the world has made. Fifty years ago the crisis, like a disease, would have had to be allowed to run its devastating course; to-day, through the aid the telegraph a fiord's, assistance could be summoned and rendered from across the seas. Such assistance was asked, and it came.

Ferhaps not unnaturally, the people of the United States have been looking forward to the Presidential address from their great leader, in expectation that some words of profound wisdom in reference to the crisis, and perhaps Rome large, far-sighted scheme for the prevention of such financial interruptions for the future, would distinguish it. Panic is a kind of mentaT drunkenness. Common-sense people, most of them, recognise that it is a vain thing to attempt to reason with a man when he is drunk; and, when he has recovered from his debauch, what can they say to him except to earnestly advise that he should not gftt into such a condition again? If a crowd of people walking along a street are suddenly stricken with a fear that a huge warehouse is about to fall and crush them, it is a moral certainty that they will run, every one of them, and the man who shouts out to be calm and have no fear, simply wastes his breath. In President Roosevelt's recent message the late crisis is-treated as a mere incident, and everybody at the same moment appears to be grievously disappointed.

There are no heroics. Perhaps a time may come when the real moral greatness of this attitude will receive its just recognition. It is not given to-day. President Roosevelt does not say: ''Fray, don't get frightened any more," for he realises how useless such caution would prove. He does say something about the establishment of an' emergency currency to be issued, should occasion arise, under a heavy tax, hut, obviously, such a provision is in the nature of a relief against a recurrence of sueh an attack. To attempt to provide that the people shall never again be similarly alllicted would be perfectly ridiculous. The store-chest of medicine which the President suggests should be kept at hand may be very good, but perhaps his message—at 'thin time—would have been stronger if bo had left it out. Usually, people sull'oring a recovery arc not in a condition to properly appreciate remedial measures; what they demand is something to prevent them ever suffering again. No doubt there arc plenty of clever people ready to propound heaps of political and financial nostrums, any one of which would prove a perfect panacea for attacks of "crisis," but, very wisely, the President has turned his back upon them all. Now, in the States, leading; bankers and financiers are loud in expressions of disappointment at the culpability of the President in not giving them something to haggle about. They allege that they have asked "for bread, and he has given them a tract." He brought them broad, he gave thorn bread, he has saved them from financial starvation, but that does not mattor *to-day. Why doesn't he tickle their stomachs now with a straw? Whv doesn't he lift up Olympus?