The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-28
NEUTRALS ID LOOK ID AMERICA FOR NEEDED CAPITAL Lending of Money Means Commerce Will Follow
 Such Loans FARRELL'S VIEW OF GROWTH IN EXPORTS Week of War Did More Than Years of Talking to Show Foreign Trade Is Vital to Americas
 Prosperity
By HOLLAND

by HOLLAND
 New York, January 27.-tSpecial.)-S many have been the strange coincidences which the European war has brought to notice that probably the most recent of them will pass with little If any com ment On the eve of the meeting of the national foreign trade convention at St. Louis there came authoritative announce ment from London that the British treas ury has forbidden any future capital s- sues outside of the empire. In plain Eng fish, this means that hereafter and until the rule is rescnded British capital must be utilized solely for England and Eng fish interests.
 That a ruling of this kind should have been made just as the foreign trade as- sociation of the United States was to meet in convention for the purpose of discuss ing the best means of pushing American trade is really an extraordinary coinci- dence. For if Great Britain now withholds her capital from foreign investment there must come demands for other than Eng lands capital from nations which need financial assistance Inevitably ap- breaches of this kind will be made to the United States and it IS the expectation of those who are well informed that dur ing the year 1915 hundreds of millions of American capital will be exported or, in other words. invested in the securities of ether lands.
 England, however is not alone in this attitude Very little, if any, capital in France will be invested in other lands than France not only during the war, but for some years after the war is ended Of course, there will be little or no in vestment of German capital elsewhere. England has now admitted that it is vital that she conserve all her resources so that she may be able to meet whatever the demands of the war may be. That undoubtedly. is the case with Germany and recent action taken by the German minister of finance is regarded here as reflecting his doubt about his ability sue cessfully to float second German loan winch is to be, if fioated, approximately or billion and a quarter dollars in American money.
 All three of these nations have been seeking to build up their foreign trade by advancing money to foreign nations. Eng land has been pre-eminently successful, so that no small part of the great income received by the citizens of England has been in the form of dividends or interest upon investments of English capital In evitably, investments of that kind are fol- lowed by the establishment of trade rela- tions.
 It was in imitation of England that Germany undertook to capture a vast amount of foreign trade, especially in South America, by investing some part of her capital in foreign countries. and these investments were followed by in- creased trade.
 The Foreign Trade Convention
 It was an extraordinary able body of men who met at the convention in St. Louis last week. Some of them had thor- oughly worked out some of the problems (which the capture of world markets made necessary to work oat. Conspicuous among these was James A. Farrell. No more instructive work could be written than would be the one which described in detail the wonderful organization created by MT Farrell for the purpose of securing in foreign markets some por .tion of the trade offered by those mar kets in steel products The work would not be purely technical for it would be descriptive of the racial, geographical, trade and other characteristics of the va rious peoples of the world.
 The convention was fortunate in secur- ing perhaps the abest master of interna- 
 certainly the man who nas the most pro- found and encyclopedia knowledge of the history of our diplomacy, of our arbitra- tons and of the administration of our state department. Dr. John Bassett Moore now professor at Columbia, twice First Assistant Secretary of State and during the first year of President Will sons administration the counselor for the state department. Dr. Moore could have drawn instantly from his own CO., pious fount of knowledge all the informa- ton and all the authorities needed for the exposition of his theme. which was "The Problems of War and Commerce" Dr. Moore's friends in this city have known for some time that he has looked with considerable concern upon our commer- cial situation so far that is affected by the somewhat vague rules of international law. He has believed that if the United States is adequately to protect its com merce we must as soon as possible fur