Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-01-08
EXCHANGE
BAD FOR TRADE
Financial Expert Tells
Why Sterilization Is
Need Now

ties OF the present sltdat'an. accord
ing to old-timers in Wall Street
. These are:
1. Aired and other nations of II,
world owe the United States annrov;
mately $15,O6O,O0O,O10.
2. American manufacturers hast;
tate, OWING to peace treaty nnca,
tainty, 10 accept big advance for
airn orders.
3, EayIrPs virtual suspension q
gold exports outside the British col
onies is repulsing American trade
Gust why the British pound sterl
ing, normally worth S4.8665 i,
American gold, should have decl,nnC
so much since the war ended. onC
what it all means is an obscure ones
ton" said New York financial ex
pert. "The present situation. 81,
George Paish's apprehensions NOT.
with standing, is by no means hone.
less. Prophecies of a breakdown OF
credit are not well founded.
Must Buy Securities.
America, the storehouse of the
world and now the worlds
banker. is in the same posi-
ton England was in after the Napo-
leonic and American Civil wars She
bought the cheap securities of i'm
poverished nations in a most prodig,
ious manner and thereby laid the
foundation for her future wealth.
We must do likewise and do it with.
in the next two or thrae years by
which time these abnormal conditions
will have passed.
"With pound sterling o. per cent
or more below par England can sell
to the United States at a great adj
vantage. We can sell American
goods abroad only at great disad-
vantage because we must add fine a5,
normal rate of exchange to the
goods to get into FOREIGN markets.
Premier Lloyd George recently de-
clared, when sterling was selling at
a discount of Is per cent, that the
discount really represented a pro
tective tariff of Is per cert on goods
manufactured in England. Certain
ly it is helping to keep American
goods out of that country.
In Strong Position.
"The only remedy for this condi-
ton is for the United States to buy
foreign securities and extend long
time credit for merchandise We
are in a strong economic position.
The nations of Europe must have our
cotton and wheat and, since they
are so heavily endebted to US and
we must extend them many more
millions to put them on their feet
what is the difference whether we
buy their bonds or send them our
merchandise?
Everyone in Wall Street knows
that if the peace treaty had been
signed in Washington an information
al exchange committee would have
been organized long before now to
stabilize exchange and bring about
other necessary readjustments. Never
during the darkest days of the war,
when the Germans were almost at
Paris, did British and French ex-
change 90 to where it is now. The
British, during the war, by a system
of credits with the United States,
had sterling 'pepged' to $4.52.
Fear $3.50 Exchange.
"The tension over and gold ex-
ports curtailed, there was nothing
to keep it that close to parity. In
deed, unless the United States loos-
ems its purse strings there are Lon
don financial experts who say the
pound sterling will drop as low as
50 so. That would be a calamity.
It would be a two-edged sword in
turing both England and the United
States.
Europe is like a man on the verge
of death due to starvation. When
Won find such an unfortunate you
feed him gradually until the stomach
becomes accustomed to digestlng
food. Now our aim has been all
along TO stuff Europe with all kinds
of American products. We hav'
piled up a trade balance, according
To former Secretary of Commerce
Redfeld, aggregating $4.OOO,ooO,OOO
a wear Europe's financial system
like the starved human stomach, has
been unable to assimilate it. Con
seouently, we thus contribute to the
decentralization of foreign exchange
and, incidentally, by imitation help to
lower the purchasing power OF our
own dollar. NJ poa
"when you consider, as Mr. IT, Red o0o
field points out, that $4.OOO'ooO'ooO
represents American dollars at par
and must be paid by those who owe
it in deprecated currencies, making XII =
il tbe equivalent of S5,0OO,OOo'OUo'
the result cannot be healthful to fu-
ture American trade and commerce
Foreign buyers are going into more
favorable markets"
Big Mexican Quake
Il TSe& C%on1c