The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-22

payments for these purchases may be secured.
 | It is an unusual combination of ability 1 and experience which is represented by
 the association of Henry P Davison and
 of Willard Straight in perfecting these | momentous arrangements in London. Mr. | Davison has gained recognition in the l financial district for constructive ability
 ! or a very high order. Some of his achieve ments are those with which the public has l been more or less familiar Some of them are not so well known. He received in- ternational recognition at the time of | the organization of the six-nation group | In Paris, which was created for the pur- pose of financing upon m almost unpar-
 I alleled scale, at least in one transaction, the needs of China. MT. Davison was l elected chairman of that group and it
 was in great measure d'e to his efforts ] that the arrangement was at last so per fected as to make it impossible for any 1 one or two or three of the six nations to
 get special advantage in China on account
 Of the loans that were to be made to that country. MT. Davison insisted upon two 1 provisions only-one that every nation l should have an equal chance with every other in securing contracts for public im- provements of railroads or other develop ment, and the other that the open door ! should be strictly maintained and there should be no impairment of the sover- eighty of China.
 The fact that the new administration at Washington deemed it expedient to ! reverse the attitude taken by the Secre- ! tary of State, Mir. Knox, in Taft's admin istration, toward this transaction does not in any way reflect upon MT. Davison's service. There probably was no American banker who in the days of darkness and despair of last August did more in the way of counsel to bring about the wonder ful cooperation which at last saved the country than Mr. Davison did.
 Willard Straight, who is associated with | the Morgan house, perfected a remarkable | piece of financing, for so young man at
 least, in the last year of the Chinese dynasty. He perfected an arrangement by which a Chinese loan of $50000.OOO was | to be fioated in the United States in gold and the money thus obtained was to be | used to facilitate the change in China's financial system from the silver to the gold basis. The overthrow of the dy- nasty. of course, put an end to the arr rangement. But the workmanship of it commanded the admiration of the great finaciers of the world. Mir. Straight is one of those who have clear ideas of what is essential if the United States is to take full advantage of the new opportunities He believes that in order to obtain trade, especially in South America, we must be prepared to facilitate the financing of South American nations. No one had bet ter understanding of what the absorption of the United States of the recent Argen- tina loan of $l5,000.0O0 meant for the in- crease of our trade with Argentina than Mir. Straight, and he will hear, while still in London, with pleasure of the acknowl- cdgment of that service which Argentina has just made.
 The Third Step
 This great transaction perfected in Lon don is another proof of the many we have had recently that the United States is now taking the third great step which must be taken if we are to secure pre-emnence in world trade and in world finance Some eight or ten years ago Sir Philip Schuster. one of the great f1nanciers of London. vis- ited the United States and Is reported to have said to his friends in this city day or two before his return to England that he observed that this country was begin- ming to take the second step in the direc- tion of world influence and world trade When first he was familiar with our foreign trade, the United States was ex- porting food and raw material like cot ton. Exports of that kind are character istic of nation which is beginning to ex- pand. He had observed, however, upon his visit to the United States that we were beginning to export manufacturing com modities in large amounts, and he ex- pected to see that export increased. But he thought the time would be far of when the United States became an exporter Of capital. saying that when a nation be- gins to export capital in large amounts then 1t Is on the road to pre-eminence. But the distant day of which Sir Philip spoke became no longer distant when the United States began to export not only vast amounts of merchandise and food,
 but also capital. If the details of the arr
 engagements made with the house of J. P.
 Morgan & Co. are accurately reported, then the United States will have become an exporter of capital within three months aggregating @2oo.0oo,0o0.