The Money Market Relieved [excerpt]

     Thanks to the action which Secretary of the Treasury Gage adopted last week, the New York money market has for the time being been relieved from the fears of any immediate pressure. In fact, there is a disposition to consider that, although considerable demand for funds with which to move the crops may yet have to be met, and a large additional amount of money will go to the south and west, in consequence of such demand, there is little occasion for anxiety on the score of a scarcity of funds in the New York loan market or of extremely high rates. The actual condition of money at the financial center of the country is the more gratifying because the assassination and death of President McKinley belongs to the class of events which are proverbially likely to create conservatism and to place restrictions upon the freedom with which loans are made. In both the money and the stock markets, however, there was a prompt recognition of the fact that in assuming the office of President Mr. Roosevelt has pledged himself to a strict adherence to the policy of his late lamented predecessor, and that the retention in office of the entire cabinet is evidence that the line of action thus set forth will be loyally followed. The fact that no doubt remains about the retention by Mr. Gage of the Treasury portfolio is a matter for particular congratulation in financial circles, and has had a practical effect upon the tone and temper of the money markets of the country, tending, as it does, to support a feeling that the stability which has been attained in the financial affairs of the government, and in the relations of the Treasury to the market, will be in no wise interrupted.