The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-20

tee of London clearing bankers and other.
wise associated with a large number n,
economic, financial ana phllanthropi,
bodies He is the recognized authority in
england on foreign trade and the money
market ana on the relation of the Banh
OF Engalnd to the government
Slr Fellxs nigh reputation not only as q
practical nnancler and banker, but as q
thinker and writer upon economic sub.
Jects, Is bound to cause men OF finance OF
London to pay special heed to somethins
ne is quoted as having said at the ban
quet IN honor of DAVID Lloyd-George. He
was speaking of conditions in the United
states, and he intimated that many Of The
peculiar1ties OF the morey and securities
market in this country can be traced t.
doubt, possible apprehension, rsspecrine
the adequacy of the proposed banking and
currency legislation.
Sir Feliv is known to favor free bank
ing on the broadcast possible lines, suDiecl
only to reasonable. regulation and SUPER
vision by the state.
He is not quoted as having said any
thing about the amazing increase In The
expectation of American manufacture ec:
products, although friends who met him
when he was in New York a few years
ago have reason to suspect that he then
looked upon this increase in our exporta-
tons of manufactured products as a pie
nomenon of American Industrial growth
more surprising than the magnitude OF
our agricultural products. He knew thai
If our expectation of manufactured prod
ucts continues to increase relatively as il
has increased in the past 10 years, our to-
tai foreign commerce, including the ex.
portation of food and cotton, Is likely
within 10 or 10 years to equal in money
value the enormous aggregate of the ex-
potration from Great Britain, almost all
of which consists of manufactured prod.
ucts.
A year ago at this time there were du.
bious reports in circulation about tn,
quantity and quality of our agriculture
products. Some of the experts estir.1atee
that 1t would be considerably below ar
average crop of the past 10 years. BuI
those who were best informed paid little
heed to these gloomy reports, saying thai
not until the latter part of August Oh
early in September could there be any.
thing like accurate information respecting
the magnitude or money value of the har.
vest. There was wisdom in this view anc
the managers of the greater American
banks adopted it. They began prepara-
tions for that kind Of cooperation with
the farmers which is necessary IL the
American harvests are to avail anything
namely, financing cooperation.
So also the managers of the railway
trunk lines began preparations for trans
porting the crops from the fields to the
markets and 1t was well that they did 50
For had they failed to prepare for the
crops there would have been congestion
Had preparations of this kind not beer
so thoroughly made, the country would
In October and in November have beer
face to face with a serious emergency
That emergency would have been inten.
siied by reason of the action Of Europe
in selling American securities in great
blocks on account of the Balkan wal
scare.
The best opinion in this city is that the
crop outlook for this year Is, all things
considered, quite as favorable as was ths
case last year at this time. The agricul
tura1 area of the United States is of sucf
vast extent that unfavorable climatic con
ditions in one part of the country rarely
prevail over the entire agricultural re
gion. 1t Is spoken of here as cause O
great confidence and encouragement tha
Notwithstanding complete sluggishness II
the securities market ana Notwithstanding
some falling off in the general business
the farmers in the great corn belts in tn,
United States have been so industrious
and the climate on the whole has beer
SO avorable-although there have beer
some bad spots here and there-that it II
now reasonable to predict a harvest o
corn of about s,Oo0Oo0,oOO bushels, perhaps