The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-28
Daily Wall Street Gossip
BY HOLLAND.

New York. May Special. )-John
 H. Williams, who is associate profess
 sor of international trade and static
 tics at Princeton University, has
 brought within a convenient compass
 the amazing figures which tell of our
 international trade since 1914. It is no
 wonder that after glancing at these statistics business men and industrial
 executives find themselves in an un-
 certain state of mind as they look into
 the future. The figures themselves
 are almost as staggering in their mag
 nitude relatively speaking as are those
 which tell of the yearly exchanges
 in the New York clearing house as- sociation.
 Professor Williams has been careful
 to obtain his information from reliable
 sources. Almost all of it is official He reports that in five and one-half years the money value of our exports of merchandise was sS0, 40s. .O0O, 900. The
 surpuls over our imports for the period
 was s1s.543 100000. Almost all of this
 can be attributed to the same exigen- cles of the war for a slackening in
 our export trade was observed for
 some months before the European
 was began. Some attributed this to the new tariff law, but whatever the
 cause that was the fact
 WHAT WE HAVE CONTRIBUTED
 The Unites States. therefore, has 'eoEtributed to the world in five and
 one-haf years. exported merchandise
 whose money value was $3O 800, ,000, % O. Of course, these exports reflect the phenomenal and abnormal necessities
 which was occasioned by the war and. since the war ended. by the beginning of reconstruction work in Europe.
 Many times the question has been
 asked in what way have our enormous
 exports been paid? Some part of them
 everybody knows, was liquidated by
 loans which other countries secured
 in the United States. The loans were
 made, but the money remained here,
 and it was used for the purpose of
 paying for part of these exports. But these loans must be lquidated, and the manner in which this can be done is regarded as one of the most serious problems of the immediate future and, in fact. furnishes one of the factors which are causing uncertainty in the minds of business men and industrial executives. The exports and the pay ments so far as any have been made and the amount of indebtedness which remains to be paid off have created
 an abnormal condition and these are reflected in the statement made by made business men that it is impos- sible for them to look with confi- dence into the immediate future.
 A CREDITOR NATION
 Professor Williams. who apparently has had some association or confer ence with Frank A. Vanderlip, upon which he bases his study of the fu- ture of our foreign trade calls att tention to the fact that at present the United States is a creditor nation by as much as $12.0c0, ,0o0 900. When the European war began we owed the rest of the world not less than $4,000. .000,- 00o, possibly as much as S5,000, ,00O, 900, almost all of it representing foreign capital which was either invested in the United States or in the Ameri- can securities.
 WITHOUT ANY PRECEDENT A record of this kind is without precedent when looked at from the point of view of size or character or the amazing rapidity with which the record has been made Nothing Il the history of foreign trade and fi- nance, not even the story of G eat BTitain's growth. compares with this record. The wonder is thow SCOT there
 wiN he deflation or falling off in our foreign tEado. Presumably the trade balance will again stand upon a nor nal basis, but the question now is, when and h:w? The year 1919 which was the first full year of the recon struction period, is beginning to fur nish facts ard evidence upon which