People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1896 — FOREIGN INVESTORS. [ARTICLE]

FOREIGN INVESTORS.

Let Them Unload American Securities it They Wish—Their Real Reason Therefor. A labored financial editorial in a late number of the London Times reads as though it were written for one of the New York papers. We recognize the same line of argument directed against free coinage, coupled with a great deal of gratuitous advice to the American people as to the course they should adopt if they want to be in harmony with the money center of the world. We do not recollect any time when the advice given by the London Times was that which the United States would be wise to adopt. It speaks by the card for the desires of Lombard street, and we need not say that the policy of Lombard street is devised for the benefit of Lombard street and not for the benefit of the American producer. The Times gravely states that the “silver heresy” in this country will lead and has led to the selling by British investors of large quantities of American securities. Very well. Let them unload if they wish to. The presumption is that the securities were purchased in the first place because of their intrinsic value, and they will not lose any of it whether they are figured in 100 cent dollars or in 200 cent dollars. If the British want to throw away their good securities, no one will be hurt but themselves, and it will be a happy day for this country when it does not owe a cent abroad. If every American security held abroad is transferred to the hands of Americans at half or three-quarters its value, this country will be the gainer by the exchange, and the only losers on this side of the water will be the New York brokers and bankers who make a business of selling stocks and bonds on the other side. But the reason given by the interested gold men is not the true one. Under the gold standard there will be further decline in all kinds of American property. Gold prices of everything will continue to go down. British investors know this, and the reason they are selling is to avoid making a loss. If they realize cash for their holdings now.Jhey expect to be able to repurchase real estate, stocks, bonds and securities generally at some time in the future and at considerably less than they are now selling for. On a continuously falling market it is to their advantage to sell, just as it is to their advantage and to the advantage of capitalists in this country to avoid putting money into any kind of property. That process of holding on to money has the effect cf accelerating the decline of prices. When none will buy, prices will necessarily fall. Money is being hoarded because it is the only kind cf property that is appreciating in value.—Denver News.