The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-19
GAIN IN IMPORTS FAVORABLE OMEN IN BIC MONEY CIRCLES Makes It Easier for Foreign CTS to Take Care of
 Their Debts ADDS TO VALUE OF ANGLO-FRENCH LOAN Many Banks Have Invested in These Bonds to Insure Their
 stability at End
 of War
By HOLLAND

| New York, May 1S.-(Special.)-I
 March there were delivered at ports of the United States, chiefly New York, commodities of foreign manufacture in excess both in amount and in money
 value of any imports for more than a year. Large as the money value of these imports was the exports for the same month so greatly exceeded them as to lleave an apparent or visible trade balance | in favor of the United States of many
 millions.
 l The incident was well received in the
 financial district and for two reasons
 One of these is found in the presump- l tion that much the greater part of these commodities is raw material which will enter into some form of American manu- featuring The other reason always
 mentioned by those who have discussed found ir the fact that the greater the | increase in imports the more readily will Great Britain and Europe meet the ob- l legations incurred by their trade with the | United States.
 1 The hope is generally expressed that 1 imports of this kind will be maintained i and increased. If continued, they should ! go far toward accommodating our inter
 national financial relations.
 1 Some when discussing this matter ! spoke of it as serving favorably to af- l feet the market for the securities which
 represent the Anglo-French loan The head of one of the large bond houses 1 of New York-a house that does not do | a speculative business and is esteemed one of the most conservative in it's vo- l cation-said this morning when speaking of the March imports that he hoped that when the end of the European war comes I his house will have on hand a consider able amount-at least from 200 to 500 | bonds-whichi represent the Anglo-F'rench ] lean. He had learned that many of the l banks and not a few of the private bank CTS of the United States are holding these bonds in reserve. They look upon them as furnishing fairly good insurance against loses which may occur after the European war is over because of the re- I that time.
 A STRANGE STORY
 | When the chapter is written which | tells a story of the financial and financ- ing side of the European war, and es- pecially of the relation of the United 1 States to it, it will contain one of the strangest Of all the stories assocated with :, this international financing. Already l there is a feeling that the negotiation | for this loan and the consummation ot l 1t were not characterized by such skill
 as undoL btedly would have been the case | had the American bankers been familiar with transactions of that kind. It was
 a new undertaking. It was necessary l to work it out from original points of view. Some of the details may not have
 been as perfectly worked out as would have been possible had this been a sec ! ond, instead of first loan of this kind. Moreover the feeling grows that possibly the bankers may have been too 1 taciturn, although in the brief remarks
 made by J. P. Morgan to company of
 bankers he did give reasons for his un-