Evening star., 1924-08-24

the individual American?
Oceans of words have been printed
| in regard to the tangled mess which
has kept the world in turmoil since
the close of the great war and which
now seems in a fair way of being e
| Strengthened out through the appIi-
cation of the plan formulated by the
Dawes committee. 1t is more than
| probable. however. that the average
American has only a very hazy idea
as to what the whole business is
about and an equally vague concep-
ton as to it's bearing on his own per-
sonal fortunes.
L asked Willis H. Booth. president
of the International Chamber of Com
merce and vice president of the Guar
anty Trust Company of New York, to
tell me in as simple terms as possible
just what the success of the Dawes
plan would mean to the United States.
Mr.. Booth is particularly well quail
| flied to answer that question. for the
International Chamber of Commerce
| may fairly claim to have been the
father of the Dawes committee, as
that committee was appointed fol-
lowing recommendations made by the
International Chamber at it's meet
ing in Rome two years ago when the
leading business men of America met
chaos caused by the war. Since then
| Mr.. Booth has given a generous share
of his time to helping forward the
| work of the Dawes committee.
"A settlement of the reparations
problem" said Mr.. Booth in reply
to my question. will bring one very
important result. which will pro-
foundly affect the prosperity of
America and which will be felt by
every American who has to work for
a living, whether he be manufac-
turer, a merchant. a farmer or simply
a wage Garner. 1t will mean that it
| will be possible for US to buy and
| sell freely once more in Europe"
! Importance of Foreign Trade.
How is that going to affect a local
merchant in, say keokuk, Iowa."
asked.
Every closely. when the real mean
| ing of our foreign trade is under
stood and its relation to our national
business. In almost every business
| it is a well esta tablished axiom that it
is the last 10 per cent of the goods
purchased on which the question of
profit or loss hinges. If we apply
that axiom in a broad manner to our
| national business, you will very soon
see how important our foreign trade
| portion of the total volume. Roughly
speaking, before the war our foreign
commerce represented about ) per
| cent of our production. That is not
| an absolute figure, as it is almost i'm
| possible to arrive at an exact per-
| centage when dealing with such a
| subject, but it is approximately cor
rect Today our foreign business is
probably less than half of the pre-
hot s.jr M IA No a
alone can readily spell the difference
| between prosperity and depression"
THE reparations problem" | re-
marked "iS very largely question
| of the money which the allied nations
demand that Germany shall pay them
| for the damage caused by the war.
Just how will a settlement of this
question of inter-European debts af-
| feet the American business man who
wishes to trade in Europe?'
by the stabilization of European
currencies," responded Mr. Booth,
promptly. I'VE have been anxious
| and ready to buy and sell in Europe
! and the Europeans have been just as
| anxious and ready to trade with US.
! The only real stumbling block has
| been that, with few exceptions, Euro
pean money was of uncertain value,
| and of course this was particularly
| true of one of our greatest pre-War
| customers, Germany. If the Dawes
plan is accepted. it will mean that
German currencies as well as the
| currencies of almost all other Euro
| pean countries will be stabilized on a
gold value basis. This does not mean
on a parity with gold, phrase which
| is very often misused. 1t simply
| means that we will be able to meas
ure these European currencies in
! terms of gold and will know exactly
I what we have to pay for goods and
| what we should sell them for. When
we get to that point it should be an
easy road to the time when we will
once more have a substantial favor
| able balance in our foreign trade