South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-01-06
URGES SYSTEM Of
CREDIT EXCHANGE
IN SOUTH TRADES
Member of Commerce Depart
men SAYS Financial States
man" is Needed to Arrange
Mercantile Operations.

WASHINGTON. Jan. 6. The
thing needed in Iatin-America now is
the financial statesman Sec'y Will
liam G. Redfield OF the department of
commerce told the house committee
on appropriations during the recent
hearings on the legislative, executive
and judicial appropriation bill
The bill as passed by the house, au-
/ thorizes an appropriation Of $4,000
! FOR promoting commerce with Cen
trail and South America during the
next fiscal year. This is $25, 600 less
/ than the amount requested by the
secretary of commerce, in whose de-
partment is situated the bureau Of
foreign and domestic commerce, but
il is $4,000 in excess of the amount
appropriated in the last bill
Must Arrange System
According to Secy Redheld's state
ment before the house committee.
there is no difficulty now about SELL
ing goods of the United States in
Central and South America. The
main thing needed is a financial sys-
tenn whereby there may be arranged
a basis of credit between the sellers
and the purchasers. man with an
order book is not so important, Sec'y
Redfield says, as the financial states
man who can go to Latin-America
and arrange for the financing OF the
mercantile operations between the
merchants of this country and Cen
trail and South America.
When Secy Redneld appeared be-
fore the house committee in connec-
ton with the estimates for his de-
partment he was asked this ques-
/ ton:
Are our manufacturers doing any
thing in their own behalf To extend
trade. especially with Central and
South America
They are doing so much" said
Sec'y Redfeld that YOU remember
! ] had To write a letter to the senate
recently in which l strongly urged re-
straint lest they overdo it.
l. Financial Situation.
THE situation in Latin America
today is first a fiscal situation or fin
ancial situation. / have requested the
/ secretary of the treasury TO call
conference of American bankers UNI
der the auspices of the federal re-
| serve board to see how we can
finance Latin American purchases in
this country Their position down
\ there is that they are anxious to buy,
! but they have no credit against
/ which they can buy.
Their supply of money from Eu-
rope has been cut off and they cannot
sell their raw materials. They are
most anxious to buy of US if they can
get financial arrangements made. For
| the time being what is needed is not
the man who goes with an order
book, but the man who goes as a
student and who can so with some
means TO help them finance these
matters.
L have had a telegram from the
Argentine minister for foreign rela-
tons handed me by the ambassador,
which bears out that statement. To
be practical, it means just this: That
Brazil has got coffee and rubber to
sell and more than we have been able
to buy. Chile has got more copper
and nitrate TO sell than we / ave been
able to buy and Bolivia has tin to
sell. We have never been able to
take more than a moderate amount
of these articles, and the balance has
gone TO Europe.
Will Buy from United States.
Now, when the European markets
are closed TO these products if we
can buy from them they in turn will
buy from us SO I am not advising
American manufacturers generally to
go down there and put men in the
field expecting them to take large
orders. Go there if you want to
study TO find out what you can do in
the future. but the thing needed in
Latin America now is the financial
DR.. +. f. Pratt, chief OF the bureau
of foreign and domestic commerce.
interjected with the statement that
| his bureau has been recently advised
that 80 statesmen had gone from the
city Of Chattanooga, Tenn, TO Central
and South America. Sec'y Redfeld
said the bureau not only has been do
ing good work in helping to extend
American trade abroad. but that it
has been beseiged by various cities
TO establish branch offices in those
cities.
Until about a year ago." said
Sec'y Redfeld, while we got a GER
tain amount of information from
abroad it was stored here in Wash
ingtOn. Now we have stepped out in
TO the world and are bringing the in
formation at a triiing cost to the
great commercial centers."
DUBLIN, Ind.-On the day that
Silas il Lesson, so years old, of Ell
wood. was to come here to visit his
n-in-laW Leonard T'ban,ne ha