The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-20

upon his profound knowledge of the re- sources of the United States. both devel- oped and undeveloped, and the almost in- I finite variety of them. He knew as well as any man ir the United States how great the advances of American manu-
 featuring industry since the year 1900 had I been. He could quote almost to the last dollar the amount of exchange issued which represented the sale of American | manufacturing commodities to other na- tions. He was confident that the wonder l fill mo6ern machinery which represents | the operations of finance would be suffi- cient to bring order out of chaos and the power which would enable that ma chinery to start and reach it's maximum would be created as soon as the inevitable demand from Europe Great Britain and
 the far east for American commodities be- gan to be felt.
 No Longer Conjecture What was said by Mir. May conjectural- ly late in August he now feels justified in stating in a more positive way. He has joined those who are persuaded that New York Is speedily to supplant London as the money center of the world. He dis covers in the small-relatively speaking financing transactions which the United States has recently undertaken on the account of other nations one of the indi-
 
 center from London to New York is al! , ready under way.
 Mir. May Is in cordial agreement with George D. Roberts, recently director of the mint in believing that if there can be established a world-reaching system of dollar exchange-that is to say, ex- change expressed in terms of dollars and not in terms of pounds sterling-then it is inevitable that the money center of the world would shift to New York There Is something more than sentimental pride behind a statement of this kind. For the Instant that dollar exchange supplants pound-sterling exchange there will flow to New York vast amounts of money from other countries, and this money can be utilized as London has here- tofore utilized the enormous funds which have come to that market by reason of the fact that exchange was drawn upon London and represented in the terms of pounds sterling.
 There are other advantages. Some of the nations which in the past have been accustomed to maintain great credits or balances in London are likely to turn to the United States. That Is the sig nificance which is to be found in the recent transfer of gold from China to the
 United States. MT. May himself has spoken of this as only special transac- tion, but he meant to be understood by that statement that IL dld not reflect Or- dinary trade dealings between China and the United States. But there is a deeper meaning in the word special as applied to his shipment of gold from China It is special in the sense that German mer- chants in China have now begun to util- ize New York instead of London and when they draw against this gold their bills will probably be expressed in terms of dollars.
 Furthermore, it is inevitable that there be almost inconceivably great exports from the United States to Great Britain and the continent of Europe and other parts after the war is ended. MT. May is of the opinion that when war ends and Germany begins to build up, that nation Will call for very great amount of American commodities, and Is likely. in view of the resentments which must long finger in Germany, to prefer American commodities. other things being equal. to those manufactured in England.
 It Is of extraordinary importance that Mir. May, pre-eminent as an expert of foreign exchange, should have felt safe in saying that he is now persuaded that New York is speedily to become the finan- cial center of the world.