Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 260, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1914 — Page 2

SOUTH AMERICA NEEDS MONEY

f A_N the United States spare South America $500,000,000 during the next five years? Can it supply $100,000,000 during the next 12 months? South America wants these amounts within the period stated. The needs of several of the countries are pressing. They must get money somewhere. When the war cloud broke at least half a dozen countries were negotiat--4 ing in Europe for loans. Most of them were in the midst of commercial and financial crises due to economic causes which were at work the world over. Part of the loans wanted were merely to take up old obligations by new issues, but in every case there was also a demand for additional capital, which would have increased the total The war has dealt a death blow to these expectawhere International finance is discussed, it is now perfectly understood that with the European countries staggering for the next 50 years under the debts which the war will create there will be no more loans for South America. The same understanding exists on the coffee exchange in Rio de Janeiro and on the bourse in Santiago. Temporarily some of the South American .countries

will suffer as much from the war as the nations which actually are engaged in it They will not only be unable to obtain money abroad but also their whole foreign commerce will be dislocated through the loss of markets. Some of the countries have met the emergency by following the example of the European nations and decreeing moratoriums. Harassed South American financial institutions and big commercial firms which were in difficulties may therefore bless the war as avoiding the necessity of forced payments, but they will welcome it only as a means of Immediate relief to debtors who otherwise would be forced into bankruptcy.

Brazil has met the situation, brought about through the inability to float new loans, by pi-ovid-*ng * Or a . De : iSSUe ° f Paper currency in addition to the abundant volume which already is in circulation. Time may demonstrate the wisdom or the unwisdom of this action as an emergency measure, but It shows the demoralization that the European war has caused. South American public men and the diplomatic representatives of*the different governments in Washington who know how great the dependence has been xm Europe and who understand fully the fiscal status of their respective countries, inevitably turn their eyes to the United States, and It Is through them that the query comes as to whether the United States can supply a few hundred millions capital. The answer which may be given to the question will determine whether the United States is to obtain commercial supremacy and to dominate South America financially. European financiers who until the New York Stock exchange was closed were getting gold by unloading American securities in their look ahead are now doubtless revolving the same question as to what the United States may do in the way of financing South America. To them the question takes the form of a query: Whether any of the >2,000,000,000 Indebtedness of the South American governments can be shifted to the United States, and If so how soon and under what terms ? Two billion dollars represents Ground numbers what the South American countries owe in the form of public debts. What may be called the national debts do not foot up this sum, but the municipal and state or provincial debts, some of which are not guaranteed by ths national government, bring up the total. All the South American countries have had the borrowing habit. Some of the weaker and more reckless ones have given the whole continent a bad name. Yet the truth'ls that in view qt resources and natural wealth and the rapid develop--inent that has been going on >2,000,000,000 is not an extravagant public debt total. It will be found, moreover, that the very large proportion of the debts has been created by the countries which are solvent and which scrupulously meet their obligations. Since the International imbroglio, In which the United States took a hand, Venezuela has been paying off Its debt until now the total amount outstanding |s less than >35,000,000. Colombia has what is known as a consolidated debt, #hlch does not exceed >24,000,000. The country has managed to meet the interest in a manner to satisfy even the critical British foreign bondholders committee. Colombia, whether It gets the >25,000,000 Panama gratuity from the United States or not, wants a general loan of something like >50,000,000 to build railways and rehabilitate the countrv generally. Ecuador has a public debt not exceeding >2O,-

000,000, most of which grows out of the bonds issued for the Guayaquil and Quito railway. These are held In England, France and the United States. The provision made for the sanitation of Guayaquil carried with it a prospective loan of $10,000,000. A proposition which was brought to New York bankers a year ago was for a blanket loan of $45,000,000 to $50,000,000 to take up outstanding obligations, provide for the sanitation of Guayaquil and to leave a balance for national purposes. A New York banking house a few years ago tided Ecuador over a stringency by means of a temporary loan and realized a very handsome profit. Peru, after the war with Chile in 1881, was left with a debt so monumental that it never could have recovered if the burden had remained. The country worked out of the situation by turning over the state railways under a long lease to the Peruvian corporation, which was also given the remaining guano deposits and various land concessions. The Peruvian corporation and the government have had more or less friction under the arrangement; but so far as its status as a borrowing nation was concerned Peru was able to face the world without a big debt. During the last quarter of a century the total Indebtedness Incurred has not been large. It now amounts approximately to $35,000,000. Peru was in the market for a loan when the European war broke out. Bolivia, the midcontinent country of South America, left by the war with Chile without a seaport, also was able to start the peace era without a big national debt. The amount of the different forms of what may be called the Bolivian debt is now»between $19,000,000 and $20,000,000. Paraguay, on account of Its numerous revolutioqs and possibly for other reasons, never has had much success in securing money from Europe. Its present public debt is between $12,000,000 and $13,000,000. The opening of railway communications with Buenos Aires and other chapters of peaceful development have Inclined European financiers to look more favorably on Paraguay, and a loan for the country was in prospect until a month ago. Now, If Paraguay borrows, it -will have to be In New York Instead of in London. Taking the group of countries which are not large borrowers out of ken, It will be found that the bulk of the public debts of South American countries are those of the Argentine republic, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. This group of countries owes Europe—that IS, the governments owe Europe—more than $1,700,000,000. They are able to meet their obligations, though some of the loans may require refunding on new basis. The borrowing, nations are really the A.-8.-C., or mediating Squth American countries which helped President Wilson settle the Mexican imbroglio, and Uruguay. The total of the Argentine obligations is variable, according to the amount of cedulas, or national mortgage bonds, which are in circulation.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

Two years ago the Argentine debt was approximately $657,000,000. A year later it had risen nominally to $732,000,000. . Something more than a year ago Argentina sought to float a new loan in France, but the conditions were unfavorable. A new loan on the same basis would doubtless still be desirable, but the Argentine government would look to New" York rather than to Paris or London for funds. Brazil’s various debt Issues now approximate $660,000,000. There have been loans for public improvements and other objects. Brazil, as a vast country, greater in size than the United States, with undeveloped resources the extent of which is not yet known, has been a free borrower. Within the last year there have been various propositions for new loans to take up the old ones. It is not likely that any Brazilian loan can now be floated' in Europe and none is therefore likely to be sought by the government. Later,

when the inevitable readjustment takes place, Brazil most likely will seek to place her loans in the United States. Chile now has outstanding obligations In the nature of public debts to the amount of $210,000,000. The country has borrowed largely on the underlying security of the nitfate beds and the revenue to be obtained from them. The European w-ar interferes with the demand for these fertilizers and a- temporary .result may be that the workmen 16 many of .the nitrate fields will be out of employment. However, the permanent source of wealth which Chile possesses In the nitrate beds remains. Uruguay, for an agricultural country, may be assumed to have a pretty large debt, since the total now amounts to $138,000,000. Yet the republic, which Is on the gold standard and which has a dollar worth more than the dollar of the United States holds high rank In European financial circles because of the certainty with which its financial obligations have been met. A few months*ago when an emergency loan of $10,000,000 was wanted Uruguay made vain efforts to place it in the United States. Ultimately It had to be placed in London, Paris and Antwerp, at 86%. By far the larger part of the public debts of the South American countries Is held In England. * While some of the loans which have been placed through London have been apportioned to other monetary centers in Europe and have been absorbed on the continent probably between seventy and seventy-five per cent of the obligations remain In England. 1 These general facts about the debts of the South American countries and their distribution in Europe are essential to knovK in judging of the probability of American capital at some period in the near future relieving Europe of a part of its South American financial burden. Heretofore there has been no market In the United States. The main question recurs, and on it depend in large degree the future trade relations of the United States with South America: Can the United States spare South America $500,000,000 during the next five years? n Can it supply SIOO,000,000 during the next 12 months,

COMPARATIVELY LITTLE.

“Awful, isn’t It?” "Dreadful! But I did not know you knew about it.” | “Why, every paper is full of It!” “Every paper full of the fact that my wife’s relatives have come to spend the balance of the summer with us? You must be crazy!” "You must be crazy! I was referring to the European war situation.” “Huh! I wouldn’t be bothered by a little thing like that.” ' »

QUESTION OF QUALITY.

Little Red Ridinghood, however, was still considerably at a loss. “Just why,” she asked, knitting her pretty brows perplexedly, "do you wish to eat me?" The Wolf threw one leg carelessly over the other and laughed. “I’ve heard so much about this better babies movement,” quoth he, and flecked the ashes from his cigarette, “that I wish to see If there’s anything in It.” —Puck.

HAD BEEN THERE BEFORE.

“Right In the midst of the advice you were giving him you broke off and hurried away.” "That’s what I did?” “But he was listening deferentially to all you had to say." “You bet be was. I never had a man listen to me that deferentially that he didn’t try to touch me for five dollars before I got away.”

Dr. Marden’s Uplift Talks

By ORISON SWETT MARDEN.

RUSKIN kept on his study table a handsome block of chalcedony, on which was engraved “Today.” We all know people who, according to their own account, would be very philanthropic if they had but the time; who would visit the sick, relieve the poor, and comfort the widow and the fatherless in their afflictions, did leisure permit. Others would become great authors, singers, jnventors, statesmen, if they only had the time. But, alas! they have absolutely no time —not more than one or two or three hours a day at most, and what does that amount to? An education that would adorn a man of letters, or qualify a college professor, has been secured in the fragments of leisure that are often wasted because they are so brief. Some people will pick up a good education in the odds and ends of time which others carelessly throw away, as one man saved a fortune by small economies which others disdain to practice. Who is too busy to give an hour a day for self-improvement? Great characters have ever been misers of their moments; they have always placed high value upon their time, and I have never known a man to do anything very great in this world who set a light value upon his time. A youth has the ability that does things when he sets a high value upon his time and is always trying to improve himself in his spare moments. I have never known such a youth who has not turned out well. You will never “find” time for anything* If you want time, you must make it. “There are moments,” says Dean Alford, “which are worth more than years. We cannot help is no proportion between spaces of tirftq. In Importance or in value. A stray, unthought-of five minutes may contain the event of a life. And this all-liii-portant moment —who can tell when it will be upon us? “Drive the minutes, or they will drive you.” Many a great man has snatched his reputation from odd bits of time which others, who wonder at their failure to get on, throw away. In Dante’s time nearly every literary man in Italy was a hard-working merchant, physician, statesman, judge or soldier. Rufus Choate used to lay out a course of study in the classics practically parallel with that of the young men in Harvard university, and by Improving the few spare moments which his immense practice left him would keep pace with the students, year after year.

Macaulay wrote his “Lays of Ancient Rome” In the war office while holding the post of secretary of war. Mr. Gladstone also kept in front of him this word: “Today.” This was to be a perpetual reminder to him of the rapid flight of time, the rapid slipping through his fingers of his precious life capital, and It was his determination never to allow an hour to pass through his hands from which he had not extracted every possibility. He was always storing up bits of precious knowledge, valuable information, and this colossal accumulation, this marvelous sClf-lmprovement and selfculture, were responsible for a large part of his gigantic achievement. What a rebuke is such a life to thousands of young men and women who throw away whole months, and even years, of that which the “Grand Old sfan” hoarded up to even the smallest fragments. Success lit' life is what Garfield called a question of "margins.” Tell me how a young man uses the little ragged edges of time while waiting for meals or tardy appointments, after his day’s work Is done, or evenings—what he is revolving in his mind at every opportunity—and I will tell you what that young man’s success will be. The worst of a lost hour is not so much in the wasted time as in the wasted power. “If you are idle, you are on the way to ruin, and there are few stopping places upon It. It Is rather a precipice than a road,” said Henry Ward Beecher. Let no moment pass until you have extracted from ft every possibility. Watch every grain in the hour-glass. Yet your record be for the coming new year: “No moment wasted, no power perverted, no opportunity neglected.”

SOME time ago I read a story about a young officer in India who consulted a great physician because he felt fagged from the excessive heat and long hours of service. The physician examined him and said he would write to him on the morrow. The letter the patient received informed him that his left lung was entirely gone, his heart seriously affected, and advised him to adjust his business affairs at once. “Of course, you may Hye for weeks,” it said, “but you had best not leave important matters undecided.”, ” . Naturally the young officer was dismayed by this death warrant. Re grew rapidly worse, and in 24 hours respiration was difficult and he had an acute pain lb the region of the heart. He took his bed with the conviction that ha should never rise from IL

During the night he grew rapidly worse,and his servant sent for ths doctor. “What on earth have yoii been doing to yourself?” demanded the physician. “There was no indication ol this sort when I saw you yesterday.” "It is my heart, I suppose,” weakly answered the patient in a whisper. “Tftnir heart!” repeated the doctor. ■"Your heart was all right yesterday.” “My lungs, then,” said the patient. “What is the matter with you, man? You don’t seem to have been drinking.” “Your letter, your letter?” gasped the patient “You said | had only a few weeks to live.’ 1 ! “Are you crazy?” said the doctor. “I wrote you to take a week’s vacation in the hills and you would be all right.” The patient, with the pallor of death in his face, could scarcely raise his head from the pillows, but he drew from under the bedclothes the doctor’s letter. man!” cried the physician; “this was meant for another patient! My assistant misplaced the letters.” The young officer sat up in bed immediately and was entirely well in a few hours. We are all at some time in our lives victims of the imagination. The conviction that we are desperately ill, or that we have been exposed to a terrible malady, to some incurable, contagious disease, completely upsets the entire system’ gnd reverses the processes of the various functions; the mind does not act with its customary vitality and power and there is a general dropping of physical and mental standards all along the line, until we become the victims of the thing we fear. When I was in the Harvard Medical school, one of the best professors there, a celebrated physician, who had been lecturing upon the power of the imagination, warned the students against the dangers of imagining that they, themselves, had the disease about which they studied. The professor told me that once he got it into his head that he was developing Bright’s disease in his system. The conviction became so strong that he was in the grasp of this so-called fatal disease that he preferred to die rather than be told of his condition by another physician.He lost his appetite, lost flesh rapidly, and became almost incapable of lecturing, until one day a medical friend, astonished at the change in his appearance, asked what was th® matter with him. “I have Bright’s disease,” was the reply. “I am sure of it; for I have every’ symptom.” “Nonsense,” said his friend; “you have nothing of the kind.” After a great, deal of persuasion, the professor was Induced to submit to an examination, and it was discovered that there was not the slightest evidence of Bright’s disease in his system. He rallied so quickly that even in a day those who knew him noticed the change. His appetite returned, his flesh came back, and he yas a new man. « Medical history shows that thousands of people have died the victims of their imagination. They were convinced they had diseases which in reality they never had. The trouble was not in the body, but in the mind.

Something About Your Fingers.

The cutting of the finger nails Is one of those little tasks from which we are relieved only by the grave. It Is computed that their average growth, in sickness and in health, is one-thlrty-second of an inch a week, a little more than an Inch and a half a year. This rate of growth, however, is not the same for all the fingers, the thumb and the little finger being the ones whose nails grow more slowly than the others, while the middle finger is the fastest of the lot. In summer It has been observed that they grow quicker than In winter, and some authorities hold that the nails on the right hand lengthen more rapidly than those on the left. In either case they grow four times as fast as the nails on our toes.

Heroic Remedy.

A contributor to Everybody’s Magazine tells how an irate woman cured her .husband of thp drink habit after he had spent money on ‘‘booze’* that she had meant to use for getting clothes for the children: “I jest let him go to bed, and after he’s been sleeping long enough to be pretty hear sober, I goes and sews him up In the bedclothes, takes the broomstick and pounds the devil out of *lm, and I’ve never had a day’s worry since.’’ After reading stories of wife-beating, there is a certain satisfaction in coming across the tale of a woman who turned the tables to good purpose and exorcised her husband’s “devil.”

A Social Warning.

"What are you going to do with all the money you expect to make?” asked Miss Cayenne. “I’m going to have a fine house and entertain sumptuously,” replied the' price-booster. “Yes —but in the meantime you are rendering yourself so unpopular that no really nice people will come to your parties.”

A Summer Hotel.

“I’m having a slow time, here.” . “You ought to mix more with the other guests, my dear. I’m sure they are willing to> be friendly.” “Aw, what’s the use of listening to the scandals of a lot of perfect stram «ers.”—Louisville Courier-Journal.