The Washington herald., 1920-12-09
PENDING CHICAGO
TRADE MEETING
ENTHUSES FINANCE
Important Conference to Be
Held Shortly Is Topmost
Financial Subject.
By G. =. EVANS.

CHICAGO, Dec. s.-The confer
ence to be held in this city on Fiji
day and Saturday looking to the
orxanization Of "a corporation 70
promote our foreign commerce Is the
topmost subject Of conyersauon
among the topmost financial people
ef this city and the outlook for sue
cess grows better and better all the
time. Money Is ready to 50 into
the undertaking and 1t is believed
the same is true throughout the
United States
when one looks at the large bal
ance Of trade In our favor In octo-
ber he Is inclined to think that the
forsixn commerce needs little Amer
lean attention, indeed that possibly
We would be doing the world harm
BY increasing the excess OF exports
over imports and further widening
the diference between the values
of american and European moneys
This Is the short view. II is not
the trade Of today that we are to
protect, it Is the trade for an in
aefnite number of years in the fu-
ture and we should be foolish TO
abandon the vantage ground we
have already occupied.
Coffon B1Raening scum.
But specific considerations are set
forth by II. C. p. Deans, manager OF
the foreign department of the Mer-
chants Loan and Trust Company.
He declares IL to be of the highest
importance TO provide Italy, Czecho-
sIovakia. Germany and Belgium
with raw materials. He says that
we have a compelling motive from
our point of view. These countries
have in the past bought our low
Grade cotton on a grand scale, and
IL Is now that particular class Of
goods which is burdening the south
ern States. for IL does not appeal
to American purchasers to the same
extent as to Europeans Low grade
cotton has been sold in vast guam
titles especially to Germany and
Austria. Now the spindles in these
countries and largely throughout
Europe are idle
Mr.. Deans reports briefly a con-
yersation he recently had with a
high-class business man Of Milan,
whose utterances have a specially
keen edge today since lire have
reached the low point Of az cents
as against q par Of 1890. While
there Is no bid for sympathy on the
part Of that gentleman, one must
class his statement among the typi-
cal things that have grown out of
tiSe war. He said that the great
need or his country Is the physical
means of starting up the factories,
I'VE are short of material and long
of men,. he declared. not that he
meant \ desire 80 be rid of any Of
the population, for We paid q COM
pliment to the vorke-s OF the ma
lion, we want to mani facture and
We want to- pay our deb ; me de-
clared-
U. 9. Already oyerts.zed.
The demand that gov ernments, in
whatever form. shanl let the rich
uncle of the world alone for an in
definite period L.. again made by an
authoritative rinancial people. The
United 81. les government shut
dowpc ON European nations after
'tser Indebtedness had gone above
5000, 900. 900. but appeals to private
capital have been made since in
considerable. numbers by nations
and municipalities. Thus large
amounts have been drawn out of
this country by the lure Of high
interest rates. Only the most dire
necessity would justify further
claims on US. We need great ma
tfonal and local improvements in
the United States. but we cannot
afford them; still less can Europe.
1t Is almost equally necessary
that American corporations shall be
moderate in their demands for new
capital. Business Is declining and
by so much should the issuance of
new securities decrease, yet some
corporations make their appeals to
the public as IL the amount of
money to be had were iimitless. We
might better give the right of way
to the stock and the debentures to
be issued by the organization now
contemplated. for over-production is
still the fault of Americans and an
outlet must be had for. the excess.
The-rat on the debentures can be
set high enough to compete success
fully with other issues. especially
as the securities can be made nearly
absolute through the Investigation
and the banking methods Of the pro-