Evening star., 1925-07-10
Americas Foreign Investments.

The United States and its people
rest of the world. Investments of
private American capital abroad in
1924 amounted to $1,000, 900, 900, ac-
cording to data collected and made
public by the National Industrial Con-
ference Board. Foreign investments
one.half of our investments abroad.
In addition TO the investments of pri-
Vate American capital in foreign
countries are the huge war debts owed
the United States by the allied ma
tions totaling in principal and accrued
interest some s11. 900, ,OOO, 900
With these huge investments abroad
the interest of Americans in political
conditions in foreign countries has
grown. They are interested on the
material side as we'll as the moral
War, with its attendant ruin and de.
struction of property, in some of the
nations where American capital is
most heavily invested could not fail
TO have it's effect on the American
pocketbook. This explains the very
considerable interest which the So
called group OF American international
bankers has in European affairs and
in the stabilization of the world. 1t
may explain also some of the desire
to have this country enter the League
of Nations
Loans to foreign governments con-
stitute large part of the investments
of private American capital in for.
eign countries. For example, private
capital invested by United States citi.
zens in Europe amounts to about
$500, 100000, the National Indus
trial Conference Board maintains, and
of this total 1,500, ,000, 900, or nearly
four-fifths of our European commit
mentS, are loans to governments.
Here particularly lies a reason for
American interest in the political af-
fairs Of Europe. The fall of a govern
ment to which hundreds of millions of
dollars have been loaned would cause
more than a gasp to the bankers and
loan.
OF the total OF nine billions of dol.
lars plus invested abroad 44.4 per cent
is invested in Latin American coun.
tries, indicating the growth of bust.
ness and trade between the United
States and other American republics.
While the loans to the governments
of the Latin American countries are
not so large in comparison to the
total investment in those countries
with the loans to European govern
ments, they are still considera BILE,
totaling $4,000, 900.
American capital has been gener-
ously invested in the Dominion of
Canada, where the loans to the
Canadian governments total $1,Os0,-
600, 900, which is 43 per cent of the
total American capital invested in the
Dominion.
The Far East still beckons for Amer
lean capital. Our total investments
in Asia and Oceania are set down at
the trifing sum of $500, 900, 900, or
only 7.6 per cent of the total foreign
investments made by Americans.
Even here the loans to governments
represent 81 per cent Of the whole,
serving to emphasize again the inter
est which America has in the mainte-
nance Of stability and peace in the
world.
The amazing change from the early
days of the Republic, when the ma
tons of Europe were lending America
about a million dollars a year. and
America was using what wealth it
possessed for its own development,
has come about in little more than
a hundred years. The United States
has become the banker of the world
with tremendous power