The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-14

at Washington made official announce ment a day or two ago that negotiations between Great Britain and the United States with intent to perfect some ar rangement which would facilitate interna- tional trade operation and the payment of American debts have been discontinued The reason is of the best There is no longer any need for negotiations of this kind. The official announcement which came from Washington differs only from the intimation which reached this city few days ago in the fact that that infor- nation was private, although authentic, whereas the announcement made by Gov ernor Hamlin is official and reflects the view of the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. McAdoo
 Sometime perhaps when the war in Eu- rope is ended if that be long continued, the marvellous story of the change to strong and normal conditions, from chaos and from absolute deadlock in the f1nan- cial relations between the United States and the rest of the world will be authori- tute as remarkable story of financing and of high ability, together with the maintenance of courage and hope, as is contained in the history of civilized na- tions
 When the chancellor of the exchequer of Great Britain, Lloyd George, sent Sir George Paish to the United States, in Oc- tober, in response to a request made by those in authority at Washington that a semi-official mission of that kind be un- dertaken the impression was general that the result of this mission would be the establishment in London of very large credit in favor of the United States Sir George knew that all that had been up to that time accomplished in the United States was secured through voluntary action under the leadership of the fore most bankers of the country and with the full moral cooperation of the federal treasury. a8
 In this respect. we differed greatly from Great Britain, where the government itself took leading and authoritative part. The British government permitted its own guarantee to be given for the payment of an enormous amount of obligations. The government authorized a large and special issue of certain kind of cur- rency. The government was the leader. although, of course, it found cordial CO., operation among the leading bankers of London. The government established a moratorium which gave debtors who had abundant credit and plenty of resources but no available funds breathing spell 90 that the payment of. their debts could not be Immediately exacted of them.
 On the other hand, payment of a large amount of indebtedness on what is called current account-that is, payments for merchandise bought in England by Amer lean merchants and manufacturers esti- mated nthe aggregate as $250. coo, ,OO0-was demanded of these United States debtors. We had no moratorium and the closing of the stock exchange was the only means by which there could be secured post ponements of the payment of obligations, these being exclusively stock exchange obligations.
 As It Was In 1862
 In the mid-year of the civil war, when deprespion was the greatest in the north, q demonstration was made of the abund- ance of real wealth In the Unite States. This wealth was in the shape of re- sources of all kinds-of harvest; of mines and lumber-and it was then shown that all that was necessary was only to con- vert some portion of this wealth into ne- gotiable instruments in the form of bank notes and government paper in order to secure all the money needed for carrying on fha Thfa raonvv,