Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1910 — “BANKER OF THE WORLD.” [ARTICLE]

“BANKER OF THE WORLD.”

Money Contained In “Lons StockInn” Earn* Title fop ('ranee. M. Jules Roche, who is so high an authority on financial matters, and who has so often raised his voice against the Increasing dimensions of suocesive budgets, contributes to the Figaro a remarkable article entitled, "Fifty Milliards of Debts,” the Paris correspondent of the St. Louis Post Dispatch eays. He begins by saying: ”1 was extremely grieved to give pain to my excellent friend, M. Georges Cochery (the minister of France), by stating that under the reign of the radical-socialist majority, which has wielded absolute power from 1906 to 1910, the following increases have occurred, and are shown by the official documents and the financial laws of 1906 and 1910: “On the expenses of the budget: $100,600,000. “On the debts of the state: $1,010,800,000. “On France’s total debt: $1,096,000,000. “Lastly, I have to add that this total debt of our sweet and patient country amounts to-day to more than $10,027,000,000. These are, unfortunately, material facts, on which everyone is free to comment as he pleases, but which are what they are according to the accounts of M. Cochery himself, and those of his colleague, the minister of the Interior, who is the severe guardian of the communes and the departments.” But all the same, there is a bright side to this rather somber picture of France’s financial condition, as the following facts will testify. A pamphlet from the pen of an anonymous writer has Just come out, which gives some eloquent figures. It is entitled, “Quartre Ana de Republldue. 19061910,” and In one very noteworthy chapter it is asserted that France has for several years past become the banker of the world. “The total revenue of the capital possessed by the French has been estimated at $4,400,000,000, and is increasing every year by more than $400,000,000. The amount of the savings bank deposits, which was $23,000,000 in 1878, rose on Jan. 1, 1903, to more than four times this sum, distributed among 12,847,599 bank books. “The stock of gold, which Is an element of defense of primary Importance in the event of an armed conflict, has exceeded in 1910 the ‘figure of $1,200,000,000, which is far higher than the total of the monetary stocks of several great nations- of Europe combined. “The goM kept at the Bank of France alone represented more than $600,000,000 on March 24,. 1910, and the silver $175,000,000. The French rentes are nearly at par, and the credit of no other nation, England excepted, can rival that of our country.” With a view to ascertaining the accuracy of this statement, the Matiq has referred the question to the ministry of finance, and has been assured that, as the officials put it, “the figures given for the savings banks and our monetary stock are strictly exact, and are in conformity with our own statistics.” The ministry also furnish the following instructive figures as to the total deposits in the savings banks in 1869, the year before the war with Germany broke out, in 1880, in 1890, in 1900 and 1908. In 1869 these deposits amounted to $142,200,000; in 1889 to $256,000,000. In 1890 they had risen to $582,400,000; in 1900 to $652,800,000; and in 1908 to $900,000,000. So the treasure contained in the national “Bas de Laine,” or long stocking, has sextupled in forty years.