Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-17
WORLD SECURITIES
. MARKET IS URGED
Match Trust Head Suggests
Method of Expediting In
terest Payments.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.

BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.
Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, May 17.-Ivor Kreuger,
s'the bachelor king of matchmakers,"
visiting Chicago and the Middle West,
told business men this week that it
was not the war debts that caused
complications in international trade,
but the payments of interest on other
loans and debts incurred by the ex-
port surplus of certain countries, which
cannot be paid in gold because there
is not enough of it. nor in goods, be-
cause the creditor nations do not want
them"
quite true! The Swedish match
king is head of Kreuger & Toll. pow
erful international trust, controlling 225
subsidiary companies and operating IN
every known country except Russia.
His organization produces more than
rs per cent of all the matches made
in the world. After stating his opinion
he suggested way out:
Create an international market for
securities" he said, through which the
debtor nations can have their tempo
rary obligations converted into long
term loans, as was done regularly be-
fore the war, when Great Britain,
France, Switzerland, Holland and Ger
many were the principal creditor ma
tons"
what Ivor Kreuger, 40, whose COM
pany recently loaned Germany Slzo,-
OO0, 900 and other nations some tens OF
millions In return for the match mo-
nopolies in the different countries says
is of worldwide import. For MS COM
panys securities are listed and quoted
on more stock exchanges the world over
than any other corporations.
what complexities the situation Is
the unfamiliarity of American investors
in foreign securities" he declared;
whereas the European capitalists had
for generations been trained in the &C
ceptance Of foreign stock and bonds.
No European since the war has be-
come O greater power in world business
than this youthful-looking Swedish
match leader.
Stocks may rise or fall in the future
as they have in the past, without any
warrant, but sooner or later investors
must awaken to the fact that the earn
ing power of the common stocks cannot
be disregarded.
This is the statement Of Arnold w.
wetsel, president of the Wetsel Market
Bureau, who asked this question:: will
the investing public ever return to the
fact and consider the ratio Of price to
earnings as prime factor In the pur-
chase of common stock?"
fore" says Mr.. Wetsel. What basic
law of economics will justify price for
any stock of so, 40 or even 80 times its
earnings? Didn't we all fall for 1T IN
1928 and 1929 without realizing 1t? 1t
helped to build a structure with sandy
foundation, which had the greatest COL
lapse in history"
OF course. one should understand
clearly the difference between earnings
iafl &c ho dividend
while earnings are net profits, only
portion of which go to STOCKHOLDERS
pockets in dividend checks.
This writer Is familiar with one very
shrewd investor who never buys a COM
mon stock which is selling at more than
Is times its earnings on the market.
And then he considers only stocks with
long earning records behind them.
Thirteen is my lucky number and I
stay with It," was his crisp but wise
comment, when asked him the secret
OF his stock market success.
Not all financial papers center their
interest and activity in Wall Street. The
Financial Post of Toronto, which has
the largest circulation of any financial
paper in the Dominion, does not report
the New York Stock Exchange quota
tons at all.
Its owner, John Bayne MacLean is to
Canada what j. G.. McGraw OF Nc
Graw-Hill g. Co Is to the United States.
He is the owner Of more than dozen
trade magazines, as well as MacLean's
Magazine, a popular weekly.
I'VE do not include the New York
Stock Exchange quotations, not because
we are not interested, but because we
are specializing in the Canadian field.
We are home specialists, and the busi-
ness news of Canada gives us plenty to
cover" said Mr.. MacLean to me in dis
CuSsing the subject.
Editor MacLean does not believe IN
trimming his sails to meet American
business life. Canada keeps him busy.
Canada world Of limitleSs oppor-
tunity," Is the way he expressed 1t.
There will be no difficulty in selling
the stock of the Bank for International
Settlements. This is all that is lacking
before the bank opens.
Within the next 10 days subscriptions
will be called for, and while in some
countries, like Belgium and France, the
public is to be allowed to participate,
the bank share allotment in the United
States will probably be taken up by the
three institutions whose officers have
had a direct part in organizing and
starting it on its way. These three are
j. P. Morgan g. Co, the First National
Bank of New York and the First Ma
tionai Bank Of Chicago.
So popular is the stock Of the newly
created international bank in Paris that
the French allotment Of 10000 shares is
reported to have been oversubscribed 80
times before the subscription books
opened.
France is keenly alive to the new
world movements.
(Copyright, 1880, by North American News
paper Alliance)