The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-10-24
Americas Best Customer.
Cincinnati Enquirer.)


 Within the last year Canada has taken the place long occupied by Great Britain as our largest foreign customer For the first half of 1928 American exports to northern ueighbor amounted to $429,OO0O00, being nearly S45, ,000, 900 greater than those taken by the United Kingdom These figures become all the more significant when the relative population of the two British nations is taken into account. With less than nine and cne-half million people about the the population of the metro politan district of New York-Canada ab sorbs more than IS per cent. of total ports. equivalent to annual purchases of $90 a person, compared with $17 per capita by the people of Great Britain.
 It is quite to be expected that such factors geographic propinquity, intimacy of inter course, and similarity of consuming habits and standards. should tend to make trade with closest neighbor more intensive than with the transatlantic British Isles. Moreover, three of the largest items in exports to Canada namely, coal iron and it's products, and petro- leum and it's derivatives, commodities of which Great Britain is itself either exporter or the controller of extensive foreign sources of supply. The fact, however, that our exports to Canada during the first half-year showed in- crease of 6.4 per cent. over the corresponding period of 1927, while those to the United Kingdom declined by 7.5 per cent. is symptom attic of changes that have their basis largely in postwar international financial relations.
 The United States stands today a creditor
 
 Britain and Canada In the case of the former, Americas position is the result of intergovern- mental loans. exceeding $4,50O 0O0. .O0O the pro- ceeds of which were dissipated in the scrapheap of the In the of Cnada, rowever American capital investments, which have in- creased from little over $400, 900 900 before the war to more than $3.000, ,000. coo at the present time have been applied chiefly to the develop ment of that country's natural resources and in- dustries. Fully two-thirds of Americas capital cto in ,,.1A hydro-eleetrc, pulp and paper, mining metal lurgical and manufacturing industries Since much of this investment is in the form of stock in Canadian subsidiaries of American corpora tlons-there being now some 400 American controlled branch factories assembly plants in the Dominion--t is not surprising that struc- tural equipment and machinery should constitute the largest group of our exports to a country whose new industries closely associated with American finance and technique Exports of producers goods tend to accompany the export of industrial capital.
 Both Canada and Great Britain consistently show an adverse balance of trade with the United States, amounting last year to about S40O0 00O- 900 in each case. With the former country the large annual additions to holdings of Can adian securities provide credits against which exchange can be freely sold to cover excess inn ports In case of England, however, the exchange situation is aggravated by the necessity of mak Ing annual remittances of over S16O 900 900 to Washington for the service of her sterile war debt The reduction of England's unfavorable trade balance with the United States has tbus become matter of national concern which has found expression in safeguarding of industrvn tarlhs carrying imperial preferences and in or ganized efforts to procure essential imports from other than American sources. as reflected in the activities of the Empire Cotton Growing Association, the Empire Marketing Board and of the Royal Dutch-Shell and Anglo-Persian oil groups.
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 The course and volume of trade currents are affected by international capital claims anu movements, and the postwar deyelopments in Amerlcas financial relations with Great Britain anu anu canada are such as to make the changed ranking in our export trade one tbat ,s I;,fo,, nor only to persist, but to become even more marked in the future