The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-19
NEED THEIR TRADE
United States Must Finance
Foreign Buyers to Save Selves.
Says President American Bank
ers' Association to Rotary.

The creation of financial machinery
adequate to enable the markets of the
world to absorb Americas excess pro-
duction of raw materials and manu-
z featured goods is as vitality important
E to the prosperity of the farmer and
flour miller of Kansas as it is to the
manufacturer and exporter of the in
dustrial centers of our country, John
6 $. Drum CT San Francisco, president
of the American Bankers association,
Z said today in an address to the To-
3 peka Rotarians.
Is The members of the Bankers as
+. ISOLATION, who are holding their an
nual convention in Topeka. were the
guests of the club. About three
hundred men were present, one of the
3 largest Rotary luncheon crowds in
= months.
q American farms and mines and in
dustries Of all kinds, speeded to a
high rate of productive activity when
Z war and postwar demands of foreign
= markets made the United States the
Z great exporting nation of the world.
= have produced and are producing
g greater quantities of raw materials
{ and manufactured goods than can pos
Z sibly be used at home he declared.
Weak Foreign Markets To Blame.
THE underlying cause of unsatis-
s factory business conditions in Kansas
and turnout the United States today
e buy on a short-tIme credit basis the
81 commodities that they badly need and
= which it is necessary for America to
= sell. The world still needs all the
& wheat and flour, for instance, that
Z the United States can produce, but the
world has neither the money nor the
z goods to pay for these fcodstuffs."
a The farmers and bankers and bust
s ness men of the United States pre-
&eminently the creditor nation of the
Il CT har7 ,Ixyng- TO h.
financial machinery necessary to
E bridge the gap between American pro-
s duction and world consumption, y
s. Drum said. 'It is not matter of
s charity nor of giving to the world
ssfrom our abundant wealth. 1t is d
plain case of selfish duty to ourselves,
= to our farmers, laborers, merchants,
= business men, producers of all kinds
6 The fact is that the prosperity of the
s United States is bound up inseparably
= with the prosperity of the world. and
there can be no permanent return of
: world prosperity until the wealth de-
4 Stroyed by war has been replaced,
8 war-inflated economic structures con-
-stracted, and the huge national debt re-
educed.
Invest in Foreign Industries.
s "By investment in the productive
s enterprises of foreign countries the
%people of the United States must help
q to restore the productive power of the
= world ana the aDlllCy OF foreign mar
kets to buy our excess production"
The business situation today, Drum
: said, gives no cause for pessimisn,
Z no cause for gloomy forebodings.
+ Many times before the world has
passed thru periods of depression, and
each time prosperity has been re-
stored, not by artificial methods de-
signed to serve as panaceas, but by the
hard labor and the thrift of peoples
working over. a period of years at the
maximum OF their productive ability"
Drum characterized the Foreign
Trade Financing corporation as the
most constructive concrete plan that
has been proposed to keep up the flow
saof the products of American mines
s and fields and forests and factories to
r the markets of the world
= Preceding Drums address, a Rotary
quartet, composed of Frank Ripley,
Ray Lattner, w. w. Eden and Irwin
: Vincent sang three songs that pleased
Z the Rotarians and their visitors.
Senator Lafayette Young, editor of
St the Des Moines (Ia.) Daily Capital,
was introduced to the club. He was
the guests of Frank p. MacLlennan,
editor of The State journal.
s The next meeting of the club will
Z be held Thursday noon, May 20, at the
parlors of the Chamber of Commerce.