The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-02
MISSION IS ACCOMPLISHED IN VERY UNIQUE WAY Indebtedness of S200, ,000, 900 Almost Cancelled Since
 His Arrival Here GAIN IN EXPORTS
 IS PHENOMENAL The Sudden Growth in Our Exports One of the Most Remarkable
 Things in the History
 of Commerce
By HOLLAND

the least of the sudden shifts and light
 nfng-like changes which have character ized our international financial and trade 1 condition since August 1 is one set forth in intimations which came from Wash ington in the latter part of last week that after all it may prove to be unnecessary for Sir George Paish and Basil R. Black ett to. hold further conferences with the reserve board and representative of the strong American banks. Sir George Paish had been in the United States less than
 two weeks when these apparently author | ized reports. came from Washington With Mir. Bracket he represented the British treasury, and the visit of these | two men was official in the sense that
 they were authorized by the chancellor of l the exechequer to fix upon agreements with the United States, if possible, by
 means of which the blockade of sterling | exchange would be removed so that there | would be fairly good facilities. from the l financial point of view, for resuming our
 international trade, especially with Great Britain. The visit here of these represen-
 tatives of the chancellor of the exche- |
 tatives of the federal treasury, especially
 in civil war days, occasionally visited Great Britain in the hope that arrange
 ments might be made by means of which | the investors of Great Britain would be | persuaded to invest in United States
 bonds, but none in official authority in
 Great Britain has done so
 l At no other time, however, has there
 been anything like the condition which l characterized, from the financial or money point of view. the relations between Great Britain and the United States immediately 1 after the outbreak of the European war
 Among other incidents associated with
 this condition was the fact that there was
 a large amount of Indebtedness upon cur
 rent accounts which merchants and oth- CTS in the United States owed to mer- | chants. manufacturers and bankers of | Great Britain In normal times, this in-
 debtedness would have been liqudated by | means of exports from the United States | to Great Britain.
 | In the financial district of this citv ii
 has been commonly believed that the principal object of the visit of Sir George Paish and his associates was to persuade 1 these debtors to make as large a payment as possible in gold Bankers in this city nave said since Sir George departed for 1 washington, that, with perfect frankness he stated that London would be glad to
 have large amount of gold sent to Ot- | tawa, which for banking purpose was | identical with London
 A thorough censorship was established 1 over the conferences between Sir George and the American authorities. It was a voluntary censorship, having no authority | publication of any details of these con | ferences.
 The Sudden Change
 or sudden there came change which IS likely completely to affect and in .a
 beneficial manner the United States. It may be that Sir George will be able to
 inform the chancellor and the British
 pahKing authorities. and may have all
 ready done so, that our trade relations
 with Great Britain are speedily to be l normal Therefore 1t may not be neces- sary for any official action to be taken either by the United States or by Great | Britain for the relief of the situation.
 That there will be benefit to both coun- l tries as a result of these conferences Ia
 beyond question. but it will be of a | moral character Illustrated by satisfactory understanding between two countries. | Trade, which was suddenly deyeloped or magnitude unprecedented, has made possioie this satisfactory change in our linternatlonal financial relations. Prin-
 eipany wlthln the time which covers SIT George Paish's visit or if his mas sage across the ocean be included then entirely within the time since he left Great Britain, the foreign trade of the | United States has increased so greatly
 that the statisticians are able to report | that the money value of the exports from the United States in the three n ala Georges departure from England and the time when the figures were pub- lfshed aggregated 320O, 100000. That is l practically the amount estimated by Sir | George as our indebtedness on current
 account to Great Britain. These figures
 Tn themselves constitute phenomenon l for which there Is no precedent in our
 commercial history or probably that of any other nation. For there was a gain in about five weeks-six at the most
 of about $200.000,000. If the money value of exports for the next 12 months be for each month equally as large.
 then we shall have sold to other coun- tries commodities of the value of be-
 tween $S,o00.0oo.oo0 and $4,OO0, ,ooO,- | G00
 A Marvellous Phenomenon
 l When the history of the relation of
 the United States to the European war is written and the story Is told of the manner in which problems which were original and which were of unparalled magnitude were worked out by the leading minds in the United States DOS sibly the most interesting chapter will be the one which contains an account
 of the amazing change in the course
 of a- few weeks in our foreign trade re-
 lation and of the effect of that change upon the international money mark ct situation
 F A week or 10 days ago, Sir George Paish was saying in conferences, as re- ported, that England would s be very glad if American debtors on current ac- count would pay their debts in gold or as far as possible In gold. While these conferences were in progress American industry and business were swiftly providing means by which these obligations would be met without en- tailing the use of gold in any amount, ! possibly none at all hereafter If it ! were possible to report without violat- Ing confidence what has been disclosed Tn confidence by the managers of lead ing industries the public would read the ireports with amazement. There are in- dustries which for the past two years have been running on One-half or one- third time. but are now operating on full time. There are industries. one in particular in New England, which are operating night and day on three shifts, having received orders U pney value of which was somewhai cess of a
 million dollars. These began to