The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-10
WHAT THE P As DID AT ANIMAL CONVENTION IN DECATUR
By ELLIS 0. HoLLUMs


 of such magnitude as already to create a VI sille or apparent trade balance in favor of the United States of nearly $500 .ooooo0 The Secretary Of Commerce MT. Redfield is persuaded that this balance at the end of the present fiscal year, June 30 will be at least S1 ,00o. GOO o1D. and perhaps more. Tn, surmis, is natural that the confer ences of which the first was held last week are due to a desire to know how belngerent and other nations are to hqui- date the war orders they have already given and those which presumably and, possibly in greater amounts, are to he given in the future. It may be- and some of the best authorities are convinved that it will be by and by essential. that these foreign-held securities be utilized 10 pay in part for the large purchases made in the United States.
 Can They Find Out?
 Nc doubt some figures can be obtained W mich will show partially the amount of the securities held in foreign lands. But it seems to those who should know mpos- si5le or at least impracticable to secure anything like an accurate statement of the aggregate figure. Last fall the late Norman B. Ream was discussing with friends the conference at Washington and was emphatic in his statement that it would be of great value to the United States il there could be obtained fairly accurate statement of the total amount of securities held in foreign lands, the title to which is in foreign ownership. But Mr Ream said an enormous amount of se- curties which are really in the owner ship of foreigners are held in escrow or in trust or through dummy ownership in the United States. MT. Ream said that he had personal knowledge of the fact that several important banking houses of New York and one or two in Chicago, were the holders of American securities of which foreigners were the owners, the amount of which reached up into the millions. Up to the time of the outbreak of war in Eu- rope these bankers collected the interest or the dividends. credited the amount thus received to those entitled to the money and according to instructions, reinvested these funds so that year after year there was reinvestment of dividends and in- terest, almost always In American securi- ties. the total amount of which was very great.
 How is disclosure of the aggregate amount of such holdings to be obtained :? Sometimes bankers do not know for whom they are acting, since the foreign holders may be represented by intermediates. Some of the great corporations. the Steel company, for instance or some of the cop per companies, might be able to furnish a list of foreign stockholders. They prob ably would be willing to do that
 Another Kind of Investment
 Continental Europe and Great Britain, principallly Great Britain, are known to have invested very large amounts of money in American mortgages or in Amer ican real estate. But it has been found @ nd in, is sary under the law to cover the real own CTS. In New York city. it is the under standing in real estate circles that a great deal of English money is invested in real properties The interest upon these investments is collected by authorized agents and is used in accordance with instructions
 | The late Frederick D. Tappan. who was for many years president of the Gal latin National bank, and who was chair man of the Clearing House association when the resources of that institution were utilized to check two very dangerous pan ics, was accustomed to say to his friends when investment in American properties by foreigners was under consdera ton that very few persons realized the enormity 1 Of the investment in mortgages or real es- tate by foreign capital In his own ex- perience, he gained some knowledge of the extent of these investments. At one | time he spoke of English investment in very great tract of land in Florida, al l though 1t was partially covered through fthe use of the name of man of promi- hence in industrial life of Philadelphia. At one time English money was utilized to a considerable extent in buying American farm mortgages. Persons of prominence In England some of them peers. some of them conspicuous for professional achieve 1 ments. have invested large amounts of money, Mir. Tappan said in American real estate. either through outright purchase, l usually under cover, or else through in- vestment in mortgages. Mir Tappan said that there was no way short of govern mental investigation in which witnesses could be compelled to testify under oath whereby there could be obtained even an approximately correct idea of the aggre- gate amount of these investments They are certainly in the hundreds of millions | It would be as difficult today presuma bly as 1t was in the years to which MT Tap pan referred to obtain fairly reasonable estimate of European investments in American real properties and mortgages, yet those are as truly the basis of Amer lean securities held abroad as are rail way shares or railway bonds or the securl- ties of the great industrial corporations.