The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-12

NhtIOnf1h Ntty ItdNlk Dh NtW lOsk
 Tho foreign situation becomes more critical as tirne passes. This coun- try's exports In Juno reached the enormous sum of s91s,oOO, 900, ex- ceeding by over s2Oo.00O,0O0 the highest previous months record. I'm ports were only s293, 100000, leaving q trade balance of s625. 100000 to be settled tn some way, nobody knows just how.
 The big balance for June carried tho balance for tho fiscal year beyond the estimates. Exports for the year ended Juno ao agsregated sT,225, 5,O0O,- 900, as compared with s5,s2O, ,OO0,- 900 in fiscal year 1918, and imports aEsregneed ss,0se, 100000. The trade bnianco for the year as officially re- ported was q, ,t2o, 900. 900, but as the official statistics still treat silver as q money metal and not merchandise, d tho not exports of silver valued at s222, 900, ,00o, should be added.
 wo have presented this unbalanced state of foreign trade to our renders so often, that possibly tho continuance of details and retteration of warnings is becoming tiresome, but tho situn- ton Is important enough to justify all tho attention it has been given. Even large business interests ohow sur prtslng desrae S< anoirerence to 1t, d,a a-s--arvntly to O feeling that ex-
 .sstnso is a matter for the bankers to look after, or that tho Governments will take care of it. Perhaps the fact that we had n favorable balance Of over s400,00o,000 last year creates confidence that we can have another of nko amount in the coming year. It must bo remembered, however, that during the yeor just closed the Gov ernment of the United States loaned approximately sa,6o0, ,00O, 900 to for eign Governments to nasise them in making payments in this country. But that authority ls nearly exhausted and from now on credits must be pro- Nided in some other way. That is tho serious feature of the sttuation.
 ESchange Rates Breaking.
 When the British Government in March abandoned the policy of sup porting sterling exchange in New York-os 1t had to do sooner or later the pound sterfir dropped to about s4.50, but soon TO led and fiuctuated botwoen s4.s0 and s4.e5 until abou, tho middle of July. Then heavy of- forinss of bills and a weakening of confidence fin the situation caused a slump and rates went as low as s4.2s, 1T rum tniS Inero mas been recovery and at the close of the month ouo- tations were about $4.s5. This rep resents discount of about 10 per cent. from mint par, by which is meant the melting value of sover- eisns. If gold sovereigns could be withdrawn from the Bank of Eng land and brought to this country they would bring s4.s665 at the U. s. mint But the exportation of sover- etsns fs prohibited except by perrnis- sion of the authorities, hence the ex- isting discount on currency, or pre- mium on Now York exchange, as you please to call 1t Tn support of the latter view 1t may be said that all the other exchanges arc now fin favor of London It Is a creditor toward evory country but the United States.
 Otber Exchanges Down.
 Tire other exchanges went down with London; probably the efforts from other countries to pay New York through London helped put the latter down. The following tabIe show--c the discount on foreign money as compared with the mint conversion value into the United States money will show how serious our trade situation is: