The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-20

when she was much younger did not even have good looks to distinguish her. She had no especial charm; least of all was she noted for any particular clever less; yet today she has all three; she is one of the most sought women in south~ ern society when she goes to New York, where she spends months every year; in maturities. Some nations of Europe have nearly exhausted their buying power. They seem to be scraping the bottom now to send us gold The gold imports which we have been receiving in the past few months have been very significant The currency of some foreign countries is so badly inflated that they would not send us this gold except as a last resort. You have recently organized in the south a foreign trade finance corpora ton. It seems to me that that corpora tion, in conjunction with the war finance corporation, has an opportunity to point
 the way out of the financial woods. Of
 course, the New Orleans corporation, or-
 ganized as it is under the Edge law.
 is not empowered to do a general trading
 business. Somebody has got to do the trading. Edge act corporations, however,
 have power to assist in the financing of
 goods to be exported. They can issue their debentures or obligations against foreign countries that they may have. It | is going to take some time to develop
 the situation, but the export business
 of the south. as well as every other sec ton fthe country, must be developed
 and maintained if present csA.u
 | to be worked out. It will require time
 patience and persistent efforts'
 WHAT BANKS CAN DO
 | Now in the meantime it seems to me,
 it Is clearly the duty of the banking sn-
 terests of the agricultural sections of l the country to do what they can to ease
 the situation along. There is nothing to
 be gained by drastic action and do not
 think the average banker wants to force I liquidation.
 "They can make advances for produc-
 ing the new crops, which ought to be
 made at much less cost than the crops
 of a year ago. They can make renewals l from time to time, and I think in some
 sections the people must make up their
 minds that they must get some capital | loanS-they may have to mortgage prop
 erty in order to tide the situation over. | But with the class of commodities pro- duced in the south, think it is clear to l you that your solution lies in maintain | ing and further developing our foreign | trade.
 There Is nothing to discourage any,
 one, if we consider what our real re- | sources are There are a great many | problems which are more or less political | in their character which must be met
 with legislation. Others. relating to in-
 dustry and transportation, require the
 most skilful handling. Did 1t ever occur 1 to you gentlemen in considering the
 problems we have, that those people who
 have solved all their problems are lying at rest in cemeteries? Gaughter). And | that nations which have no problems arc
 dead or decaying nations? And did it ever occur to you also, when we talk about prosperity how some of us fancied that we had prosperity IS months ago,
 and that everything was rosy? Now,
 gentlemen. we all know that there was something artificial about those condi- tions. Didn't we know they were too good to last? Are we ignorant of the fact that while we had those conditions there was almost as much complaint of some consequences of those conditions
 as there is now. on the other hand, com | plaint about present conditions?
 1 'We heard a good deal at that time about the high cost of living. It seemed l to be a paramount issue. It seems to | be the law of nature that things can't
 go all one way forever Our seasons al- 1 ternate. We have the storm and we
 have the sunshine. Now there are some regions of perennial sunshine Death
 Valley and the Desert of Sahara--but l they are not suitable for human habita- ton. The reaction that we had has been | very violent but the very fact that it has been so violent means in my opinion
 more speedy restoration to normal
 CONSTRUCTIVE PLANS
 Nov as far as credit is concerned times like these are not the times when
 banks make new losses. In . period such as this banks must realize that
 they have c loss on transactions prev iously made. but it is a time also to be constructive. It is safer to lend money now on present valuations than it was a year ago, and I think banks generally realize that what we want to do is to
 hold our domestic situation in hand. avoid drastic action of any kind, forma- late constructive plans, to live and let live and go the limit in extending re- 1 newals to those whose character and business ability shows that they are en- titled to accommodation (Applause). Keep your eyes on the foreign situation Use every effort to send surplus goods out of the country. It is better to take
 long time secured credit to be put in a safe deposit box than to have an un-
 salable commodity which deteriorates or which absorbs It's value in carrying charges Rear that in mind.
 MUST SELL ABROAD
 s.In order for this country to prosper
 we must produce. In order to continue to produce we must sell. and in order to sell we must buy. We should do what we can to put European countries in position where they can make pur- ckases to meet their own requirements the requirements of 1their own popula- tions, and to manufacture those things
 which probably they can manufacture
 better than we can. Give them their share of world trade so as to keep things moving and liquidate this situa- ton of frozen credits. And. gentlemen. I understand that 1t Is with that idea in View the managing director of the war finance corporation has called this con- ference. We want to see what can be done to keep things moving. The gov- ernment can do great deal to help. but not all. Your financing corporation in New Orleans can do much. but the initiative has to be taken by the people who buy and sell.
 No matter how small the transaction is. start something. Make beginning would like to see beginning made in