Show Bris charts washington digest restore jobs by b y helping in sale of products of farm and factory that Is philosophy of head of export import bank which Is doing good Goo woodwork work dWork in financing trade with S america outstanding commitments millions by WILLIAM BRUCKART Ser service vicc national press washington D C washington 1 I am supreme ly confident of ono one thin gwo are making a dent in the job of getting back some of our foreign trade that was lost to other nations in the last few years acara nobody can bo be sure that we ever will get all of it back but I 1 am hopeful because this little institution of ours here is showing that it can function safely and sat that statement perhaps Is the best summary I 1 can give of the philosophy of warren leo pierson Pl orson the president and pretty largely tho the heart and soul of the export import bank likewise it rather delineates lin eates the program of that little known federal agency because mr pierson is determined to see american products farm or factory moving as of old into tho the hands handsol of users and consumers in foreign lands moreover to analyze tho the outlook of the man Is to reach a conclusion that lie ho believes tho the way to restore people to jobs in tills this country Is to assist american forms farms and factories in the sale of their products it is curiously truo true that some of the federal agencies which are doing important work and doing it efficiently are arc least known to the general public they have no staff of press agents they seldom break into print yet they seem to be serving nil all of the people well department of commerce reports have been showing how our exports have declined through many months the records give one ona tile the impression that the lines on oil tho the chart showing totals each month are arc k in a race to see which ono one con can dive faster or deeper I 1 havo have wondered where wo we were headed as a notion nation of producers secretary hulls re reciprocal trade treaties havo have been getting exactly nowhere and have done so at enormous speed secretary wallaces ideas for selling our farm products have proved to be nothing but dreams and like dreams they vanished tho the next morning except that perhaps the next day mr wallaces publicity stall staff announced another plan solution of unemployment Is to encourage industry what I 1 asked mr pierson Pl erson Is the answer ills his reply was quoted as the introductory duckory paragraph ile ho seemed fully to recognize all of the difficult ties confronting tho the united states at the moment further there was every evidence that mr pierson Is one of the few officials of government who are aware that the solution to our unemployment problem ts is to assist industry so that it can re employ workers unless industry can be encouraged it appears that the nation Is going to continue with unemployed as it has for the last few years I 1 found it refreshing therefore to hear wr mr pierson talk about how a few dozen large factories have been kept open and with relatively full payrolls because the export import bank was able to help foreign buyers who wanted american products but could not pay cash for them for reasons that I 1 will mention subsequently however I 1 had some misgivings about tho the operations of the export import bank I 1 d doubted that there would be repayment of money advanced by the bank well tho the default Is a thing that happens to a greater or less extent wherever credit is extended mr pierson explained it if there were never any defaults there would bo be no risk attached to banking business but unfortunately that element meni must be taken into consideration the fact that there is credit risk is why this export import bank was organized of course there were other reasons but the instability of some foreign governments the lack of exchange and such conditions made it necessary tor for our government to step in and help those who are trying to export american made goods collateral behind notes Is guarantee of payment it Is to be remembered that goods tor for export go in larger quantities and that necessarily larger sums sum s of money are needed to handle the transactions in addition we have found that in many instances stan ces the buyers were what can be termed as good credit risks but they were unable to make payments of such large sums at one time nor were the american manufacturers able to wait for three or four or live five years to do so would exhaust their resources that Is where we come into the picture take a case like this A south american railroad company wanted to buy some locomotives those things cost money they wanted american engines but they wanted to pay tho the bill on an installment basis bails we agreed a reed to tak take e about abou t 60 per cent ot of the notes commercial banks with which the he manufacturer was dealing agreed to take over tho the remainder on oil a short term basis all of which sounded very well but having watched the negotiations with foreign governments over repayment of the loans loana made by tho the united states during tho the world war I 1 had somo some misgivings it seemed that here was another agency doing exactly what mr william gibbs me adoo had dono done as secretary of the treasury during tho the world wa war r in other words the futility ot of ever expecting a payment on foreign loans rather had been impressed upon me I 1 told mr pierson of my feelings that cannot bo be so in our case he explained wo we have collateral we havo have ways way of collecting there are guarantees behind tho the notes wo we have love received for example in the locomotives wo we have no tears fears at all the guarantees the collateral about which mr pierson spoke I 1 learned were in tho the shape of a bank endorsement that Is to say one of the south american banks with deposits in now new york and other large cities in the united states has added its promise to pay to the promissory notes given by tho the pur chaser mr pierson did not say so but it became readily apparent to me that should the south american nation concerned decide to forbid payments to foreigners as has happened before the export import bank it if need be could grab lor for the south american deposits in this country mr pierson gave no intimation that such a course had entered his thoughts concentrate on financing exports to south america at the moment there seems to be quite a concentration of ellort effort to old aid in financing exports to south america of course there have been credits arranged for several places in europe too and also in china mr pierson Is very optimistic about future trade with china but the bulk of the loans havo have been in connection with south american propositions sit ions and the fact that the export import bank Is paying so much attention to south america Is important in another way the fascist dictators mussolini and hitler are driving hard to gain trade footholds in south america having the type of government germany and italy have it 1 la easy tor for them to make any kind of arrangements desired by using whatever government resources are necessary it strikes me therefore that if the export import bank Is making that dent about which I 1 quoted mr pierson in the opening sentence if it is gaining a toehold in south america against the high pressure methods employed by the dictators then it is performing a great service for the citizens of the united states it Is conceivable indeed that extension of credits in the manner described might possibly be tile the means by which north and south america can be tightly bound to each other in war as well as in pence peace there is another thing about the export import bank that impressed me it is operating on borrowed money of course and the taxpayers will have to make up any losses because the federal government obviously is morally bound to pay oft off the banks bonds if it were to collapse but thus far in its life iffe tl the e exeor export t import bank has had r no 0 losses thus far it has been ab able 0 to pay all of its own expenses out of th the e interest charged its borrowers export import bank stands to make large profit and important also is the fact that in the current year barring unforeseen developments the export import bank stands to make a profit of something like that ought to be good news newa to taxpayers during an era when spending money is the first thing to which atten attention tion is given I 1 believe that fact will impress you as much as it impressed me mr pierson told me that the bank has made commitments now outstanding of slightly more than that Is to say 1 the bank has agreed to help finane finance e exports to that extent provided th terms are met and it must not be overlooked that the bank Is rather rathar hard boiled mr pierson alerson pointed out that the export import bank had to be really as careful as any commercial bank but it can do something the commercial banks cannot do make longer term loans those are the loans represented in the the figures showed that actu all tins has been paid out to borrowers in financing foreign trade and of this amount repayments under the terms of the loans have amounted to which is to say that of the loans ing well over half have been diqui dated in orderly fashion that Is the record to date and mr alerson repeated that a den lias fins been made with n comparative ly small sum of mimcy 1 0 western nensi iaci union |