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Show couraoi SECRETARY Confidence in Financial Condition of Republic Expressed by Head of Treasury Department. Sees No Necessity for Special Congress Session Ses-sion at This Time; Predicts Loan Success. WASHINGTON, April 1. Confidence In the financial condition of the country and Us ability to float the forthcoming: Victory Liberty loan was expressed today by Secretary Sec-retary Glass in replying to the suggestion of Senator Colder of New York, that a epecial session of congress should be called to stop depreciation in the market price of Liberty bonds. Far from agreeing that the decline In outstanding bonds might jeopardize the popular campaign for flotation of the Victory Vic-tory issue this month, thereby tying up credits by forcing the banks to take the new bonds, ilr. Glass declared that he was essured the treasury's efforts to solve the financial problems of the country would have the support of a "united and victorious vic-torious people." Depreciation in bonds, he eaid, has been the result of artificial causes and he knew of no one who did not believe that all Liberty bonds would sell above par before maturity. "There Is today no insufficiency of credit for the needs of any useful enterprise enter-prise nor insufficiency of gold to support , our credit structure," Secretary Glass declared. de-clared. . RESOURCES VASTLY GREATER THAN DEBTS. Echoes of the political fight which occupied oc-cupied the closing hours of congress were contained In the secretary' s reply, which was in the form of a letter to the New York senator. He quoted from a speech by Senator Calder on the Victory' Liberty bond bill, in which the senator declared that he saw no reason "why we should not feel certain of the future." Mr. Glass said there had been, no adverse developments develop-ments since the bill was passed which would make necessary a special session, as Mr. Calder advocated. "Already commerce and industry begin to show signs of the renewed life which must follow the removal of the restraints and Interferences which war made necessary," neces-sary," the secretary said. "The war is won. Our present national debt of less than ?25,0o0,0Ou,OOO and our. I ultimate debt after all war bilis are paid, , which ought not In any event to exceed 1 330,000,Oou,000, again stf which he shall hold some $10,000,000,000 of obligations of for- eigu governments, is the barest fraction of our national resources. The relation of our debt to our population and resources Is small indeed compared to that of any or the great countries of Europe. FIRM POSITION OF DOLLAR EXCHANGE. "The discontinuance of government Interference with tiie foreign exchanges made possible by the cessation of hostilities hostili-ties has demonstrated the true position of s. dollar exchange, which not only is at a premium in relation to the currencies of ali of the European countries which were engaged in the war, but has now approached ap-proached par or actually reached a premium pre-mium with respect to v the currencies of European neutral?).' "Our reserve, the greatest in amount in the worid, the greatest in relation to circulation cir-culation and deposit in any of the countries coun-tries which were engaged in the war, v.-aa on March 28, 1919, 51.9 per cent of the combined federal reserve note and deposit liabilities of the federal reserve banks. This compares most favorably with a combined reserve of -19. S per cent on November 8, 1918, just before thfi armistice, particularly in view of the fact that since that date the government's expenditures, ex-penditures, for the most part growing out of the war, have approximated $S, 000,000,-000, 000,000,-000, the greater part of which has necessarily neces-sarily been provided by the sale of treasury treas-ury certificates of Indebtedness to the banking institutions of the country. FORTUNATE IN HAVING NO FOREIGN DEBT. ' v"Ttle government's expenditures, which shortly after the armistice reached a maximum in excess of 82,000.000,000 in a month, should, after the war hills have been paid, shrink quicklv back to say AOuO.Ouu.OOO a year in addition to the interest in-terest and sinking fund charges on the public debt. This debt is wi.lelv distributed dis-tributed among perhaps 20,000,000 of our People and Involves merelv a payment by the taxpayers to the taxpayers for w'e are fortunate above all the great countries of tne world in having practically no foreign for-eign debt. "The liquidation which has taken place in Liberty bonds since the armistice. Is traceable to other causes than the interest rate and terms of the bonds. Foremost of these causes Is the fact that manv patriotic patri-otic Americans, Individuals and companies subscribe for bonds in a spirit of patriotic patri-otic fervor induced bv the war, in excels of their ability to hold. ' ADVERSE INFLUENCE HAS SPENT ITS FORCE. , "The 'oversold1 condition of the market ' tor Liberty bonds thus .-reaterl was :ic- (Continued On Page 8, Column 5.) iCOlTRY 01 FIRM BASIS SECRETARY (Continued from Pago One.) centuated by the reaction following the armistice, which made many feel they were released from the duty of holding1 their bonds in aid of the government's credit; by the desire to realize losses before be-fore the end of the year and thus reduce taxes; by the changed financial position of many bondholders growing out of the termination ter-mination of hostilities; and, worst of all, by the wicked devices of bond sharps and swindlers. "I believe that all these adverse, influences influ-ences have spent their force. 1 am sanguine san-guine to believe that the market for Liberty Lib-erty bonds has seen its worst and -that ' the market position bf the bonds will improve im-prove as true understanding of the immense im-mense strength of the financial position of the United States becomes disseminated and the Victory loan proceeds." |