The Cordova daily times., 1920-10-22


 business can be conducted on a
 basis of confident judgment rather than of guess and speculation. There must also be adequate production
 primarily in the more substantial lines of goods, so that we shall not continue to live in a narrow hand-to- mouth margin which is responsible for unstable prices. We must con- serve credit so that there will be ample funds for long time invest ments to provide for the rehabilta- tion of essential permanent equip ment, railroad building and repair, and necessary housing construction.
 with these necessary readjust- mcnts before us, I believe the duty of the banks of the country is clear. It is their duty to interpret the needs of business in view of these | foregoing considerations. Since the banks touch all phases of industry and business, they are able to ob- 1 tain broader view of the total | business situation than in the in dividual business man. whose en- 1 thusiasm or anxiety over his own 1 line may obscure his vision to the | | greater need and even to his own | best interests.
 "The banks have seen clearly the | i necessity of conserving our credit | resources lest the financial struc- ture of the country should become | over-eXpanded and weakened. They | 1 have seen, too, the need of pro- duction price stability and adequate transportation. They have realized | that our business energies must not | be diverted from these requirements. | Seeing these things clearly it has been their responsibility to act in accordance with them
 "Therefore, l believe that it is due to misconception or to failure to give due weight to fundamental facts, if business feels that there has been any tendency on the part of the banks to fail to cooperate with it to the fullest extent in the present business era. Seen in it's true light, the attitude of the banks has been the only true ,co-opera- | tion possible. Any other attitude on their part would have been non-co- operation, making more difficult the period of readjustment and recovery to normal, stabilized business, which is what all want.
 The considerations applying to the attitude of banking in cooper ating with business apply with es- pecial force in connection with our foreign trade. International busi- ness is in particularly active period of transition and adjustment During the war period the ratio of our foreign trade to our total do- nestle trade has undergone violent changes, foreign business occupying for time abnormal importance. There was also produced an abnor- mal balance of foreign indebtedness in our favor.
 Just what ratio between our for eign trade and our domestic trade may come to be established as nor mal it is impossible to say at pres ent, But it can be said that a closer approximation to equilibrium be- tween our export and import trade must be expected. whether that he brought about through decrease of our exports, an increase in our i'm ports, or both.
 If a marked recession in our eX- port trade should prove to be one of the corrective factors tending to stabilize international trade, it is my | belief that such a recession should | and that we should not incur the | dangers of seeking to stimulate by | artificial methods the volume of our foreign trade. Where there is a real demand for our goods there will | be real market. It is the business of the banks to finance goods for | real markets. It is not their bus- | ness to attempt to maintain ex- banded foreign trade when it be- comes manifest that there is not the continued economic basis for that ex- pansion.
 "We must not finance our foreign | trade on a basis that will perpetu-