The Nation Volume 104 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 Excerpt: ...in this country at the present hour. This action of the American financial markets was in some sense an historic episode of the war. In a conflict whose history had been linked in so remarkable a way with the economic developments that accompanied it, whose early stages were as much a problem of financial expedients and the financial situation as they were of military and naval operations, and whose termination may possibly be a story of economic breakdown by the Power which provoked the war, the demonstration of financial confidence in this country, on the eve of our own participation in it, will arrest the attention of every future historian. Yet the chapter is not finished, and therefore it is advisable that prudent financiers look forward as well as backward. The impulsiveness of financial America--especially its tendency to assume that nothing can alter or impair a position of spectacular prosperity--is a very familiar trait of the national character. We had abundant evidence, in such famous peace-time "booms" as those in 1901 and 1906, of the extent to which a disposition sometimes sweeps even experienced financiers off their feet. With all the unprecedented economic power which the country possesses to-day, and with all the just cause for gratification in and out of financial circles, that Germany is being called to account, it is at least the dictate of prudence to guard against loss of balance now. This consideration is brought to mind by the violence with which financial opinion itself has fluctuated. In September, 1914, some of our most prominent financiers appeared to hold the view that the European war meant this country's economic ruin. Suspension of payment on maturing debts to Europe was openly advocated in high quarters. When that...