The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-02


 before the savings bank section of the American Bankers Asso- ciation, at St. Louis, Wed, Octo- Der 1st. ''The war has touched us lightly; we have prospered through it and in spite of it. We are a richer people than when the war began, with great CT productive capa city. Our wealth and productive capacity are from one-third to one-half that of the whole world. Our capacity for mak- ing steel and labor-saving machinery and industrial equipment of all kinds is equal to that of all the rest of the world combined. Furthermore, our resources in the raw materials of in dustry and equipment for producing them are greater than those of any other country. We produce more copper and cotton than all the rest of the world, and Europe produces but little of either.
 Now that is a bird's-eye view of the relation in which we stand to Europe industrially in this greatest of emergencies. We have what she needs TO restore her industries. Nowhere else can it be had so quickly and it Is needed quickly. F'urthermOr we have the financial ability to give re- lief. We were debtor nation before the war, we came out of it a creditor nation. We have brought back t,2e American securities that were held in Europe at very low prices, by sell ing them war materials and food stuffs at very high prices, and they are heavily in debt to us besides. And the very fact that they sold back our securities during the WAT makes them more helpless now. They are without quick assets that are avail ale in this market. They have few goods to sell, for they have not been making goods. Their industries are prostrate, their mach :nery In many instances broken or scattered, their factories without raw materials, their railroads crippled, their people short of clothing and food. We tell them they must get to work. Of course they must get to work, but it is slow get ting to work without either tools or credit And yet Europe, desperate as her situa ton is, is not unworthy of credit. The soil of Europe, the natural resources of Europe, the in dustriaI properties and fixed wealth of Europe, and lastly, and greatest of all the population of Europe-to sum 1t all up, the wealt12 producing powers of Europe are abu dant assets. They have great debts, it's true, but eX- cepting what they owe us they hold the debts themselves, so that they count as assets as well as liabilities. The people of Europe are an indus trious and skilfulI population. They gre a wealth-producing thrifty peo- pie. They are good for a grub-stalle. They will work their way out if they have a chance, and meet their obHga- tions The fact that they cannot pay cash on the nail does not prove that they are bankrupt or unworthy of credit. The situation is that they have little wealth in transportab1e form, which they can ship across the ocean in exchange for what they need. They can't ship their houses or mills or lands or coal mines or rail roads, but they can send securities based on these things and pledge the income from them.
 There are only three ways in which international payments can be made first, in the commodities of trade, but we know that Europe Is unable to pay in these; she needs rather to import them. Second, in gold, the money of interpationaI settlements, but we know that they have no gold that they can afford to spare. We have just received $158,- 100000 in gold from Germany in pay ment for food. That must have been nearly one-half of all she had, and I am sorry some other means of settle 1nent was not found. For we don't need that gold; we have too much now and Germany does need it. She needs it as the basis of credit and her industrial life, and while Germany and the United States have been ene- mics in war, now that Germany has signed the Treaty of Peace, I believe we are interested in the restoration of stable and normal conditions there We don't want gold from anyhere; ii will merely initiate our credits and prices still further, and we have in- flation enough. And the third means of payment is by promises to pay ir the future, and this is the only way in which our export trade to Europe can go on.
 Before we entered the war we re- ceived over a million dollars in golt from Europe but after we entered our Government began to make loans to the allied governments to furnish them the means of making purchase! here The Act of Congress authoriz- ing those loans set the limit at s10,- C0O,o0O0OO, and something over s. 60O,O0O,O OUU nave been H1dCe oNeI S2.OO0.OOO,00O have been made since the armistice was signed. Thos' loans have supplied the means by which the great exports from thi country to Europe for the last two years have been paid. But the powe, 4o make these loans is nearly ex hausted, and when it is exhausted some other means of supplying credl must be found or our exports vii fall off In recent months all of tn allied governments have abandonet their efforts to stabilize exchang rates in the open market, and as result they have all declined heavily and the decline increases the cost O American goods. The discount ol the pound sterling is 15 per cent on the French franc over 40 per cent on Italian money over 50 per cent | We think prices are high in thl N country, but how can the French pee sso1e pay them, and pay the high trans
 sarta.tion charges and 40 per cent. ol