The Washington herald., 1922-10-17

nual expenditure Of American tour
lists abroad, the remittances OF emil
grants in the United States TO their
relatives abroad. the growing vol
ume of investments made by our
people in foreign countries. interest
upon Investments In the United
States of private citizens OF our debt
or countries and other items Of So
called invisible exchange-all COM
bine to furnish large supply of our
money to Europe with which they in
turn can make payments for inter-
est on debts. or for the purchase Of
goods from U.S.
"In total to the world these sums
amounted to about 81 sAU 900 900 in
the last fiscal year; mich was in
deed a year Of depression; and
these are sums which with peace In
the world will grow constantly over
the future These sums amounted to
three times the amounts OF interest
on the debt and to about one-half
of the value of all our export goods
last year, and they are largely ex-
pended In our debtor countries
International Balances.
IF we examine our situation in
International balances during the
last fiscal year, we will find that the
world shipped us 1900 900 900
worth o; goods. This sum. added TO
the item Of tourists. Of loans and
remittances and other forms of in
visible exchange. gave the world .
paying power to US OF about s4.l0o.-
100000. In addition. the world
shipped US over $4,000, 900 in gold
n n sill In
ported $500. 0O0. 900 in goods Thus
during that fiscal year the world had
a paying power to US in excess of
goods bought from us of about
$3.50 ,ooO 900. This excess was prob
ably used to readjust previous pri-
vate debts.
The assumption that payments
from debtor countries would nee
to be made In gold or in goods dr.
rect to the United States. or thu:
goods will food our markets
should of course. be modin>d to the
extent of the use OF invisible ex-
change, but beyond even that IL
does not necessarily follow that
there is any flood Of competitive
goods The worlds trade is to a
large extent a sort OF pool, as the
result of triangular operations: that
10. IL our investors loan money to
the Argentine then the Argentine
may eXpend this money in the pur-
chase of goods from the continent
of Europe. The continent Of Eu-
rope thus possessed of this money,
may use IL in payment on account
OF debts due us in the purchase OF
our goods. Another case of trian-
gular world commerce of profound
and growing Importance is the re-
lation of our imports Of goods from
the tropics.
shipments Being Made.
The shipment of European man
ufactured goods OF the sort that
might compete in our home market.
to the tropics. and in turn the ship
ment to us of tropical goods that
will not interfere with our domestic
manufacture or employment. is not
only possible, but is going on all
'the time. This products OF the trop-
ics-rubber. coffee. sugar. woods.
etc.-are a type Of goods which we
cannot sufficiently produce. They
srs constantly increasing in ratio
to our total imports.
In so short q time as seven years,
the proportion OF products from the
tropics which we imported has in
creased from Sc to SO per cent OF
our total Imports. To a Consider
able degree tropical countries are
under control OF our European dsbt-
ors. As our standards of living and
Of population continue to grow. our
imports of tropical produce will
further expand.
Thus. Il does not follow that the
whole of these debts are either to
be paid In goods or that competi-
tive goods necessarily come into
our market from this cause. Be-
yond this. IL America continues
strong and prosperous, our ability
to consume European goods OF the
types we do not ourselves produce
will be greatly increased and Eu-
ropes ability to pay us would be
still further increased. The as
suming that the present sur
plus Of exports over imports repre-
sents the available balance with
which q country can meet q long
time debt ignores not only the fact
that the movement Of goods alone
does not form the whole basis OF
payment, but II ignores the time
element. Due to Increasing populs-
tion. development of science, and
natural resources. the worlds in
ternational commerce doubles near