The New York herald., 1921-05-27
NEED A NEW POLICY,
SAYS EUGENE MEYER
Must Meet Conditions in For
eign Trade and Policy, He
Tells Bankers.

ATLANTIC CIrT. May ga national
policy to meet the new conditions Of
foreign trade and finance, broad enough
10 indicate a general direction for Amer
lean industry and finance and clear
enough TO be understood and supported
by the average man Is one OF the prob
lens that must be met In postwar ad-
justments, said Eugene Meyer, Jr. man
aging director OF the War Finance Cor
poration, to-day before the annual con-
veption of the Pennsylvania Bankers
Association.
mot only do we need TO develop poll
cies," Mr.. Meyer continued, but we
need to create organizations to carry
them out. Though we do not intend to
initiate European methods their pre-war
financial structure. nevertheless, offers
one suggestion which l consider OF Inn
mediate and permanent value. l refer
to the establishment in American finan-
cial centres of properly safeguarded.
broad, public markets for sound inter-
nal securities OF foreign countries. either
governmental or Industrial, In foreign
currency terms. World financing can
operate freely only through worldwide
markets for investment securities. No
more important adjunct to the interna-
tional commercial situation could be pro-
vided. than through properly estab-
lished international security market.
mo machinery would work, In
large way. more automatically. more
smoothly. or more effectively. broad
investment market Is greater than any
banking firm or syndicate of bankers.
And let us remember that merely the
dollar obligations of the foreign bor-
rowers, no matter what the quality
may be, will not make an American
international security market.
IF European financiers. In coopera-
ton with American bankers, had taken
steps to foster the marketing of their
internal obligations. as we'll as the OBJ
legations of municipalities and of IN
dustrial companies. exchange fluctua-
tons would have been much less vio-
lent. Even now 1t seems to me, action
along this line would be decidedly
helpful"
Foreign trade. in the long run. Mr..
Meyer said. must be financed by ma
tional savings, and a large part OF our
national population 'is without ado
auate savings facilities and without
stimulus to thrift"
Mr.. Meyer pointed out that the postal
savings system. hampered as it is by its
riggardly interest rate of 2 per cent.
and the restriction Waich makes IL I'M
possible to allow interest on deposits
for less than one year, or for part OF q
year, fails, for practical purposes, to
accomplish anything of national value,
and that the savings division of the
Treasury is now paying out monthly
balance OF s1o.000.000 TO s15,00o.00O on
savings certificates. He expressed the
opinion that the stimulation of thrift
by the Government would prove to be
of tremendous value, not only in con-
nection with Government financing. but
also in the general education of the peo-
pie to habits of thrift, which would be
OF equal benefit to banking institutions.
THE domestic banker" he said. lis a
determining factor in the matter Of Gre
ating the savings funds which must be
provided IT, as a nation, we are to pro-
gress nationally and internationally In
the future as we have In the past