Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-08-16
UNCLE SANS EAGLE
MOST VALUABLE COIN
American Yellow Boys VIII Now
Buy Most in the Markets Of
World.
MONEY THAT'S GOOD MONEY.
Yankees Are Sellers NOw---Value Of
Foreign Money---Everv Traveller
Recalls the Germany Mark.


A gold eagle was ever a formidable
piece OF money. but Il was never worth
SO much as it IS today Take a pock
ful Of gold eagles and they will buy
more for YOU outside of the United
states than they were ever able TO pur
chase before.
All the money of Europe is going
down. but American money remains
al par. says Gerard in the Philadel-
phia Ledger You read about rates Of
foreign exchange and they mean moth
ing that IS, you have not translated
their meaning ] will attempt that
task for you.
Before the war. or in any normal
time. it required close to S4S7 10 buy
100 English pounds Now S47G will
buy 100 English pounds. A year ago
it required $50 francs to 500 of Amer
ican gold Now the Frenchmen must
pay $50 TO get ten eagles
ltaly's money has dwindled much
faster than the French and English.
Instead OF about 500 lire 10 pay for
500 in American money. coo lire are
now required. But the Kaiser's be-
loved mark has fallen quite as much
as the Italian lire. Every traveller re-
calls that a German mark was nearly
equivalent 10 our % cents In other
words. il takes about 495 marks TO pay
for 500 in United States coin, instead
of trife over 400 marks. as was the
case in former years.
LTtarpurfu Fvapna. sc g,tt tho harpa N
| counter a given amount of it-say
1000 units-will buy far less now in
any country than it would have bought
before the unfortunate AustrianPrince
was assassinated But American mon
ey, being Just where IL always was,
buys much more anywhere in Europe
| than it did a year ago Let me put It
another way. II a Philadelphia had
contracted a debt OF 81 900 in London,
Rome. Berlin or Paris. on the Fourth
of July, 1914, he could now pay that
debt in American gold for Approximate
~ 1913 in London. 1926 in Paris. $40
in Rome and $50 in Berlin
These figures omit all those hair
splitting little fractions and shades
which the expert foreign exchange
banker can muster to the consterna-
ton OF the amateur But they are APP
proXimately near the exact truth.
They show you how valuable Amer
lean gold now is compared with the
standard moneys of Europe. Then
| there is the other side of the picture
Since American money buys SO much
more in Europe than it used to buy
European money will buy that much
less in the United States than it did
in those halcyon days when American
tourists were carrying several mil
lions Of dollars out of our country
every week.
Thus the Englishman who had debt
of $1,000 in the United States before
| the war now finds TO pay Il off he
must dig UP over 210 Of his pounds in
stead of 2O5 The Frenchman has to
raise $500 francs 10 pay his 81 200
| debt in Philadelphia, compared with
the 5000 francs when IL was harvest
time last year. The German needs
1850 marks, as against a little over
| 1000, and the Italian must come across
with 6060 lire instead of 5000.
So you will see that this Is a great
day for the American. If he owes a
| debt to Europe, he can pay 1t, with
fewer gold eagles, and if Europe owes
him he can collect for each gold eagle
much larger number of European
monetary units. Which would make
il appear to be a good time for immi-
grants to pay off any outstanding
debts they left in the old countries
prior to their coming here.
Luckily for Americans, we are buy
ing little from Europe, but selling ii
more than ever. The chief things we
are purchasing are stocks and bonds
In American corporations which Eu-
rope bought from us long ago. Since
these securities are sold in this coun-
try, they are paid for with our own
gold. They constitute. from Europe's
viewpoint, an excellent commodity to
sell. Ordinarily, to buy these stocks
and bonds from foreign owners would
be the very last last thing that our
people would wish TO do.
The situation, however. is now to our
advantage. even in that case. When
Europe sells such securities It imme-
diately uses the proceeds to pay for
war supplies purchased in the United
States. In that way our mills are kept
busy. The United States also gets
back its own stocks and bonds. so that
in future it will send far less money
abroad every year TO pay out in inter-
est and dividends. Moreover, and very
much to hte point, we are selling the
war materials al a high price and are
buying the stocks and bonds at a very
low price. Lucky Uncle Sam.