The Washington herald., 1921-07-13

years of readjustment, but as to the
methods there are many minds:
there are those who would directly
try TO stabilize exchange back to
parity: those who would create Sc
curities Jointly guaranteed by the
principal nations, either through in
ternational banks of issue, bonds
or currency: those who would ex-
tend credits directly or indirectly
from the United States Treasury to
buyers of goods, in order to stimu-
late exports; and also those who
have confidence that the processes
of business will find their own way
out.
"Attemps to bring exchange to
parity or to create international Sc
curities of any kind are open to the
objection that they involve an ele-
ment of initiation and that they
practically open the gates of credit
from the United States without re-
gard to risk. how its purpose af-
fects us or whether II really bene-
fits the borrower. Loans from our
Government direct to foreign gov
ernments or foreign merchants have
a hundred objections and disagree
able entanglements which we
learned well enough during the war.
In all this maze of difficulty and the
unsettlement over credits and debts.
would sum up that wisdom con-
sists in knowing what to do next
rather than debates upon perfection.
Can Finance Foods.
las necessary as the continued
establishment of foreign credits are.
If we are to maintain our large
volume of export trade. we should
not over-estimate the amount
needed for legitimate trade for re-
finance and for reconstruction pur-
poses. The amount is not so great
as popularity supposed and will an
nually decline. I believe all trading
states of consequence in the world
can even now finance their imports
Of food supplies. The stronger of
them can finance their imports of
raw materials. We are, indeed, i'm
porting very much larger quantities
of tropical produce than before the
war and our own consumption of
these commodities will continue to
grow. The margin OF credits needed
beyond our imports in order to keep
commerce alive for the present are,
first, comparatively short term
amounts to cover part of our ex-
ports of raw materials and the dis
tribution period Of our manufac-
tured goods and, second, constant
refnance. of debts or interest al
ready owed to US
In summary, on the production
and marketing side of our COM
merce, we can say that our food ex-
ports should remain on a greatly
enlarged scale; that the demand for
our raw materials should slowly in
crease toward prewar amounts; that
in respect to our manufactures We
should be able to hold special fields
of repetitive production and ingen-
uity; that We will need to make a
fight to hold the markets for manu-
factured goods where We come more
directly into competition with the
European manufacturer. but that
We can do II IL we will work and
apply our brains to 1t. On the finan-
cial side Of our situation I do not
believe our world credit situation is
at all so unsurmountable or that it
requires extraordinary solutions.
Must Maintain Standards.
Il may repeat that we need to
realize above all things that even
if We lower our Vision of civiliza-
tion in this crisis solely to that of
our own selfish economic interest.
we are nightly concerned in the
recuperation of the entire world.
There is an economic interdepend-
ence in the world that recognizes no
national boundaries. The greatest
jeopardy to the standard of living
of our people is the lowered stand
ards Of Europe. Now that we have
become a great debtor nation, we