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# ON THE BRINK. The government already has over $80,000,000 deposited in national banks, the largest sum for many months, and has left little undone to ease financial conditions in Wall street. The great expansion in bank loans, the heavy decrease in reserves, the high prices at which securities are quoted and the overextended condition of many specu-lators and cliques are responsible for the belief entertained by some of the most ex-perienced observers that the market is in a dangerous position.-Financial News Item. Have any of the Populist papers reported financial conditions any worse than this? Eighty millions borrowed from the govern-ment without interest and still the banks are on the ragged edge of despair, with less than $2,500,000 of surplus funds on hand-reserve constantly decreasing, although loans are being called in wherever possible. Suppose the government should call for that $80,000,000. What then will become of our boasted financial prosperity? The above clipping is proof positive that we have not money enough to expand our business any further, we cannot even keep it where it is without serious danger of universal collapse. Speculation has been compelled to call a halt on acount of the growing scarcity of money in New York. Stocks and securities of all kinds are declining. Grain also is going down, wheat is only worth 50 cents in Nebraska, although the world's crop of wheat is 200,000,000 bushels short. A few years ago present conditions would have made every bushel of good wheat in the West worth a dollar. Republican farmers that support the gold standard are paying dear for their patriotism when they sell their products at half price on account of present financial conditions and pay double for those necessaries that are controlled by the trusts fostered by their party. The Non-Conformist. The New York bankers are now im-porting gold at a loss, -one firm brought $5,000,000 in one shipment the other day, and the printing presses of the treasury department in Washington are pouring out paper money by the mil-lions. A desperate struggle is going on to make the gold blanket stretch long enough to cover the cold toes of the world. We are on the brink. The collapse may come at any time. Special to the St. Paul Dispatch. WASHINGTON. Sept. 18.-New York bankers are in financial straits and it is another case of chickens coming home to rost. For a long time the asacciated clearing house of New York has been charging Western bankers for collecting checks. The Western bankers some few weeks ago made a protest and requested that the vast amount of exchange in the form of com-mercial checks be credited up at face value, without deducting collection charges. The New York banks would not consent to this. As a result millions of money deposited to the credit of Western people has been with-drawn. In fact, the surplus reserve is about exhausted, for in addition to large withdrawals of account, vast sums are being sent West to move crops. Another reason for the New York money famine is that millions have been absorbed in floating so many new trusts. Conservative financiers here who have been watching business conditions say that in due course of time the money market and the compet-itive rush for business will settle the trus question more effectively than gatherings like the one recently held in Chicago. The Produce Exchange Trust Co., of New York, has already broken the cast iron rules of the consolidated banks, and gave notice today that it would withdraw from the Clearing House association.
