The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-20
WORLDWIDE PLAN !. TO AID MERCHANT
Vandelip Announces Aims of City National Bank to
 Furnish Data.


 Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank, was one of the speakers at the regular monthly meeting of the New York Credit LMen's Association at the Hotel Astor | Wednesday evening. He took very | hopeful view of the future of Ameri- can trade, and told of the plans of his bank in assisting in the develop ment of the foreign trade of the l United States. The City Bank, ac- cording to MT. Vanderlip, is going to establish a sort of financial Cooks 1 Tours. The bank has 39 branches in i foreign countries now, and they are | to be increased to 100 branches and | agencies where travelling Americans interested in foreign trade can ob- | I tain information about trade condi- l tions in the country in which they may be visitors.
 For American travellers who do not speak the language of the country, the City Bank branch in that country will supply interpreters, who will &C., company the visitors and make possi- ble easy language communication.
 These branches will also supply en-
  houses of wholesalers and tobbers and do everything else possible to supply
 all financial and commercial informa-
 tion required by visiting Americans.
 These same branches and agencies
 will also supply all possible informa-
 tion about American products and
 prices, as well as shipping routes, to the manufacturers and exporters, to importers and other possible buyers of American goods in the countries where they are located The an- nouncement was greeted with enthu- siastic applause by the audience which completely filled the grand ballroom. Continuing, MT. Vanderlip
 said:
 T believe we have emerged from this war almost unmeasurably richer in some things, and really richer in
 wealth than when we entered it. We ] have added to our manufacturing ca ! pacity, we have increased our ship ping, we have built railroads in France that we own, we have built s vast warehouses here and there We have done much that has added to < the national wealth, besides contrib uting a great deal that went directly s to destruction.
 Il believe that we have come out 5 Of Ithe war richer, really richer, in a a material way, tremendously rich in A the world that we have come out in to, because it is world that is, I believe, shorn forever, at least for our lifetime, from the menace of q mtlitarism; richer in spirit, rich q CT in the understanding of the < unity of this nation, what we can do & when we do 1t altogether, with one mind and one heart; richer in the A experiences that we have all passed through, and particularly in the ex- N perience that the men who have sl gone into military service have pass q ed through.
 @ T have been asked: How do a the bankers feel, and what prepara- < tion do they expect to make to fur a ther great extension of export q trader l can only speak for one
 banker, but I will tell you something S of how I feel about it., When you |A say, foreign trade to the average 8 man he thinks of export trade only.
 There has got ito be two sides to for x etgn trade; it is perfectly simple to sa see that You cannot buy a knit .a ting needle in a foreign country z without paying for 1t in one of three % ways.
 4 Tt can be paid for by the ship M ping of gold, by the shipping of @ goods, or by the shipping of credits 3 Now there is no other way to do it. X We have turned from a debtor nation Ea to a creditor nation. We have Sl changed our balance sheet about S13,. # 000,000,000 internationally in our fa- A vor and we are going to get at leas E $500,000.000 a year in interest from # foreigners. We have brought ir E s1,300,000 of gold and now we M have third of the monetary goIt E stock of the world.
 H Well, how are foreign buyers go ing to pay for this great amount oi
 exports we are hoping to make? No E with more gold, surely. Goods, yes
 but in the next few months they H have got to send us, and we have go @ to receive credit. That is to say @ we have got to lend money in one
 form or another to pay for the pur. H chases
 Are we going to have a great for
 eign trade? don't know, but I an
 sure of one thing-we are going t
 make a laundering try at it. M know that, because I believe I car
 sense something of the feeling of the & country. And while here or there # there is a man who thinks the do # mestic market is big enough, that wt E had better devote ourselves to tha and not get into this troublesom E foreign trade, as againa. that ther,
 are a great number of men showing & tremendous interest in the subject
 manufacturers looking into markets & beginning to study the situation a E never before.'
 Dean Joseph French Johnson 0 RI tthe New York University School o H Commerce, who spoke before MI E Vanderlip, was inclined to take H rather gloomy view of the bushes H situation in this country during tn H period of world reconstruction, an H expressed the opinion that, unles E the government and business ar a managed with great caution and wis E dom, we shall see falling markets S lower prices of commodities, lowe E wages, and-perhaps- lines.