Evening star., 1937-06-20
BY FRANCIS P. CARAVAN.

NEW YORK, June 19 (NAN.A).-
Disastrous as the reciprocal trade
agreement act has proved, it is but
dne OF several forces combining to
thrust the great American jackass into
JEhe NAV of the British lion
Let us take our text for today's SER
mon from a memorandum presented
by Francis Bowes Sayre, Assistant
Secretary of State, to the Senate FL
nance Committee last February, In
the course of hearing to extend the
act. The act was extended, effective
June H. Mr.. Sayre said:
THE trade in merchandise is only
tle. although the most important,
part OF colr1try's international ac-
counts. Thee are many other eco
nomic transactions which result in
payments by persons living in one
country to prisons living in another.
Prom the standpoint of international
payments, the invisible items, such
Ias expenditures for shipping, insur-
ance and tourist travel, constitute
imports and exports as much as il
they actually represented the move
ment of goods across international
frontiers. In addition. foreign invest
nnents, together with the interest and
dividend payments to which they give
rise, have an important bearing on
whether the merchandise exports of a
particular country happen to exceed
its merchandise imports or vice versa"
Mr.. Sayre has put the matter very
happily. The passage might well
have been taken from any standard
bid deal text book on economics.
Presents Balance Sheet.
1t remains for us only to inquire
why the administration does not as
semble these vital statistics and pre-
sent them monthly in the form of an
international balance sheet that the
American people can understand It
Is useless to publish such an account
ing when the moment for instituting
, remedial measures and changes Of
policy is long past. Until three years
ago, the Department of Commerce
contented itself with annual publica-
ton.
have endeavored in these articles
to repair governmental delays and
omissions by bringing the facts and
the figures up to date. Therefore,
submit here an example of accounting
which. fear, will: Demonstrate the
iniquity Of the reciprocal trade agree
n1ents, demolish the fallacy of Secre-
tary Hull's theory of international
= trade, destroy our SNUG acceptance of
the ancient dictum that the United
States is a creditor" Nation, and indi-
cate the extent of our plunge into the
economic and financial abyss.
First, word of explanation. When,
In those dear, dead days of yore, we
were producers in chief and statesmen
extraordinary to the world at large,
our merchandise exports to other
countries greatly exceeded the value
of our merchandise imports from
them. We balanced our international
seccount by means of those invisible"
imports cited by Mr. Sayre, including
tourist spending abroad, immigrant
remittances, interest, insurance, freight
and the like.
Since 1888. however, the balance
has turned against us. Our "invis-
tble" imports spent otherwise
than for goods-have increased, and
including silver we have been buying
far more than We sold. To make the
-matter still worse, We have poured
into the world economic system
$4,000, 100000 for gold, part of which
We at once proceeded to render sterile,
or useless. and returned it to a hole
In the ground at Fort Knox, KY.
Figures on U. S. Debts.
Now We are ready to publish the
international balance sheet of the
United States. In 1884 a similar
accounting showed us in debt to the
world to the extent of $4,000 900.
BY 1885 this had increased to 81 ,868,-
100000. Preliminary figures for 1896
stand as follows:
!. We sold to the world
: goods ---- $2,453, ,00s, 900
. We bought from the
= world goods -- 2,419,O00 900
" Placing the world
:: in debt to us s34,ooo,ooo
3. Our tourists spent