The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-02

1 and yet not be very successful as a buyer. and the reverse of this state-
 ment has sometimes been found true. There was some criticism in Eng
 land at the time of the appointment
 of the Morgan house as commercial
 agents of the British government, the
 fleeing at first being that as this house has been recognized as to some ex- tent, the financial agent of Great | Britain it might not be practicable to have 1t serve also as it's conner | cial agent. That criticism, however, passed away because later 1t began to | be realized in London that the appoint
 men Of this house as the commercial agent of Great Britain was very
 skillful piece of work from the point of view of diplomacy. For indirectly | at least, this action would tend to con | solidate in the United States the | larger banking interests so that it would be the easier to make approach
 to these interests in case the expedi- | ency of establishing credits here was under consideration Furthermore, in London it was publicly stated that great purchases in the United States
 made in the name of the British gov ernment would be, from the point of view of economy and facility, better served if the business were concen-
 trated into a single and yet powerful concern.
 Mir. Morgan in London
 1 Now the occasion has apparently
 arisen to which reference was made 1 in January when the Morgan house was appointed the commercial agent
 of Great Britain, that is to say, the 1 buying agents. The time has come when it Is deemed expedient for sound financial reasons to establish in the
 United States sufficient line of cred
 1t or in other words, funds against
 Which drafts may be drawn with which
 to pay for purchases in the United
 States.
 | Mr. Schwab's statement of the or
 ders on hand and the very strong in-
 ference that other great American in 1 dustries could show now, relatively
 speaking, an equivalent amount of or
 ders on hand, furnish one of the req
 sons why it may be deemed expedient
 to establish credits in the United
 States in behalf of England, France
 and other nations. A month ago one
 Of the leading authorities of the finan-
 cial district in private conversation
 said that the public had no concep-
 tion of the magnitude of the orders
 now on hand representing demands
 made by foreign governments nor was
 there any idea of the tremendous volume of money which is flowing to
 this country from other parts of the world.
 | He also said that unless somethine were done we should not only be able | 10 draw heavy amounts of gold from ! other countries, but would in fact be | compelled to do so, although we have no need of fresh supplies of gold al 'h1s time. His intimation was that if
 seemed inevitable that in a short tina
 some plan would be work ed out where. , by foreign nations would be able to
 pay upon the spot for their purchases without drawing on their supplies of 1 gold When he was asked how much
 the credits of this kind might amount
 to his reply was "Who can tell?, He | added that even if the amount durinr | this spring or the remainder of this year were as much as $500, ,O00. 900 the hhancial strength of the country is
 sufficient to meet an arrangement in- volvlng so much money. Furthermore
 IL would be all the easier to ii, this ! because the money will remain in this country. What Japan did a. the time
 or the war with Russia the beIlig ! efent nations at tne present time will do. Japan borrowed many millions in | LII" t'n- ed States and left tho money | hefe or most of i-, so thu. if c,ulI
 be utilized in paying Tor .;apan,s purchases Tn this country at that time.