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Show OUR OPPORTUNITY. Somo idea of the financial strength of Great Britain and the pre-emineu'-e of London as a money center was gained when the Statist announced that the amount of capital publicly subscribed in the United Kingdom during UU 4 was more than double the amount so sub scribed in any one -of the preceding seven years. The total, acording to the figures of the Statist, was ,.57.77n,-6T"", ,.57.77n,-6T"", or $ 1 .n79,7u2,2'i-') mote than in 10U!. All of this advance was in subscriptions sub-scriptions to British stock, takings of Indian, colonial and foreign shares being be-ing less than in l'JLb The statement adds that the total given for is exclusive of treasury bills, and represents tho true amouut subscribed. Tho capital actually paid up during the year, exclusive of treasury bills, was $1.411,"JS5,000, and inclusive of treasury bills and a few new issues toward to-ward ttie close of tho year not fully paid up January 1, tho total reach--l.Sii.270,Ot'0. In spite of thisart outlay bank deposits increased during the year and the stock of gold in the Bank of England was more than doubled. This is a remarkable showfng in view of the fact that British capital subscriptions subscrip-tions have been averaging over $1,001,-000,000 $1,001,-000,000 a year for the last seven years. The Statist concludes its review of the vear 101 t by remarking: "Doubtless all of this has not been done entirely out of the income and savings of the vear, but there is a great deal of evidence evi-dence to indicate that the tleating capital capi-tal of the country the etocks of goods within the country and the curn-nt debts due tu Gnat Britain by other lands has not been appn eiably de creased." The sit'.iatiim has changed since the fir?t of the year, and Great Uritain'? financial strength is btdng uvd entirely for war purpose-, but she is Joaiiing mouev to Ku-sia and sonic of the smaller belligerent con nt i"bs. Thce obligations ob-ligations "ill increre her financial strength after the struggle is ovr. The colonies, however, are compelled in the meantime to look to the United State" for cash for public improvements and private enterprises. English capital, which has been pouring into Canada at the rate, of $.10,000,000 a mouth, has abruptly ceased. Loans to the amount of .2f).C90,000 were recently sold in X e w York, tho banks i u t v r e s t e d advancing ad-vancing the money apparently without feeling the loss. Tn addition to the above amount Ottawa has- marketed $1,000,000 worth of public improvement bonds in Xew York, and the province of Manitoba has sold in Chicago $o, -175,-000 in bonds. These investments, however, are merely mere-ly a drop in the bucket when compared with the total of $2,800,000,000 which Great Britain had sent over to the Do-, minion before the exigencies of the war compelled her to turn the golden stream into a different channel. Still, with over $10,000,000,000 in farm products prod-ucts each year, wo should bo ablo to till tho place in the financial world temporarily tem-porarily abandoned by Great Britain, and be in good position t tight against continued domination of the London bankers after the wa r is over, and back the merchants and manufacturers manufac-turers in their struggle for a fair share of the world's trade, which we have not enjoyed in the past and which we never will enjoy unless there is cooperation co-operation of all the iuterests involved and unity of purpose. It was unfortunate that we laeked ships to cuter the ocean-carrying trade when the great commercial nations of ; Europe became involved in the life and death strugglo now in progress. It is still more unfortunate that a political light houhl have developed over the es- ! tab! ih iTtent of a mere ha nt marine, ; which will probably result in our eon- tinned- dependence upon tho ships of I other nations. Tho people of the country coun-try at large are not particularly interested inter-ested iu the political aspects of the battle bat-tle over the shipping bill now being waged iu "Washington. What they do--ore is a chance to do business both at home and abroad. Therefore, they be-lieve be-lieve that if the Democratic and Republican Re-publican leaders have the interests of t he country at heart t hey will cease playing for political advantage in the campaign of 111 o , c orn prom i se their differences and restore the American flag to tho higii seas. As pointed out in tho beginning of this article, Great Britain has invested biilion of dullaars all over the world and London is the financial center thereof. Her ships sail upou every sea and carry her Hag as well as her products prod-ucts to the mot out-of-the-way ports. London bills of ex'-hange are used in the limited foreign trade the United States now enjoys, and there is no escape es-cape from our present position unles all interests in this country get together u pon common grouud. 1 L is an old -.'tying that fortune knocks at the door of every man but once. Tho axiom ap plic- to nations as well. Tho Inng-looke'. Inng-looke'. for opportunity has come at lat and ad t e have to do is to grasp it. As properity nt home depends to a large extent upon our foreigu commerce, com-merce, it is to be hoped soim; way v. ill bp lound to place our g.ods in all the mark't- of the world; that our banks will continue to niako huge investments abroad, and that we hall have, a mer-diaut mer-diaut marine worthy of the name some time in the near future. Commercial su-premaey su-premaey will not eoino to us; we inut go after it. |