New Britain herald., 1928-03-07
FOREIGN INVESTMENTS

Senator Willis Of Ohio the other day announced he was "unalterably opposed' to foreign investments of American money, which, he said, should be employed at home.
 By being employed at home, the Ohio senator averred, American money would give employment to Americans, which he was of the opinion should be the duty of all American money.
 The argument sounds slick, too. But those of us who are not much younger than Senator Willis remem- Der the day when it was claimed that too much British money was invested in the United States, es- pecialv in the form of owning rail- road securities. It used to be quite a common incident of finance. in- deed, for American railroads to look for British money when they needed it. This was because there wasn't quite enough money in this country to finance it's rapidly expanding rail- roads, this at time when the great est outdoor sport was the construc- ton of railroads and trolley lines.
 At that time London was the cen ter of the worlds money market. Today. largely as result of the wars turnover of established insti- tutions and a change in conditions, the United States points with pride" to the self-evident fact that New York has taken the place of London as the worlds money mark ket- Will Senator Willis or somebody equally learned tell us how a nation harborlng the worlds financial cen- ter is going to continue as such without loaning money to govern ments and industries all over the worldo
 Senator Willis cannot supply the answer. Either We are the worlds financial center--which means the worlds loan centcr--or we are not i; and in the latter case it would mean We lacked the means and could not l loan out the money. We would be 1 back where we were in the years before the war.
 Comes to hand a special supple 1 ment of the Foreign Policy Associa- = l tion. entitled "The Ascendancy of the Dollar" It is a brochure of la pages, and is crammed full with the | detailed lists of American invest ments made abroad during 1927. We do not suggest if be read by Senator Willis because the mental shock would be prodigious.
 The annual turnover of foreign loans has risen from s3.500,0oo be. fore the war 10 almost so00, GOO, GOO; ! instead of 19 foreign loans floateG 1 during 1914 we now absorb thai many in one month. American dol lars are in demand everywhere How i would Senator Willis stop the de mand, or the flow? By having { law passed? Or another amendmen l tackled 10 the Constitution
 The total net Ameiican foreigI , investments during 1927 was $2,o71.
 954, 1o0; this figure. of course, is ex elusive of rcfnnding operations. I'm figures include publicly offered an, privately placed loans. as we'll a. industrial loans
 This brings the total Of our for oign holdings 10 approximately S14, i 5"r. .oun 600-- exclusive of the so ! called political obligations of th
 United States government
 Before the war We owed foreigl
 nations S5,yn4. .0G". 900. The differ ! cnce between what We owed al tha
 tune and what is owed fO llS at th
 present time is sl9.5o0. 900, ,0oo. ] Does Senator Willis think we ar
 that much worse off or better offo
 AS matter Of fact, N Senate
 Willis were nominated and elected
 hc probably wouldn't attempt to q
 thing about it, We have evolve