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Show U. S. HO LONGER' Oil DEBTOR LIST Conditions of Few Years Ago Have Been Entirely Reversed Re-versed by War. DUTY HOW TO PAY CUR WAY Looking to World Leadership in National Na-tional Ethics and International Commerce Brings Us Face to Face With Problem. By WILLIAM C REDFIELD, Secretary of Commerce. Five years ago the United States was a debtor nation. We had financed many of our largest enterprises with the aid of European funds. The visible balance of trnde was in our favor but was nearly or quite offset by such unseen un-seen Items as payments for interest, for services (transforation) for the expenditures of Americans traveling abroad, etc. We were as a whole an expending rather than an investing country. The work of developing the 'I full range of our resources was lncom- piete. We were far from being inde-pendent inde-pendent in the economic sense, but V looked to the world outside our limits t for many essentials; viz. : for credits, i' for materials and for many manufac- tured products which we did not our-selves our-selves produce. There were then three great com-V'tors com-V'tors in the international market V;t Britain, Germany and the United V which ranked in the order "viThe first two were intrenched tJ the globe with banking fa-Vid fa-Vid transportation systems at their command. Great sessed the largest merchant a the greatest aggregate of J ital in the world. Germany r industries on science and ttZuX 3 commerce on research and Vr-lainjoth by government aid. It 'ting volumes for the competing 'and -f American industry that e competition of this nature she yrajise competitor in a common II 1 f for tions Reversed by War. V enti,.nilitions are today rerersed ; nated's changed them all. Ger-I Ger-I waj: for years been excluded ig op,rl(1 m1I'kets an3 has Iost i rooded 111 In them. Her fleets surl1. At home she is disor-(lvtlefeat disor-(lvtlefeat and civil strife, iianv' (Petuocls linve been dis- shafts ise tne trail of evl1 Is .'. The earlier years of k jld u'r altered the currents of ( K ind action so that Great Brit- V. her allies looked to us for J nd other essentials. First i 'e'iled the investments made l-t- -9ve repaid them a sum esti- t lat lH-om $4,000,000,000 to $5,000,- dichen while looking to us for jt s;ns they called upon our nat- tmcirces and our industries for Jisiues of raw and manufactured ns. Thus the balance of trade I flavor grew immensely and the ar offsets against it were re-..' re-..' While others were fighting we I tlated wealth. We paid what J J abroad and became in turn a l.r nation. When we saw that J :at contest was one In which we yltally concerned ant entered I vr this process was accelerated. I.aned vast sums to the nations which we were associated so that (iy not only has our foreign debt to Tjpe disappeared, but a debt from IKoe t0 113 of e'Snt and a na" DiI" li'im3 taken Its P'ace- We have I 'it,lated the greatest stock of gold I '.history of the world. Now that (-n(,fe seems over the world looks for essential materials and . A J--'tnt wlth whlcn t0 rebuild that !l'fem, '.'var has destroyed and to re- 'the normal work of life. We f not only feed and supply the ' W-., but must furnish In large part J Sioux f-redits from which we shall be Jers of t., industries which we did not t have dete are created and operated. We f to the oil ,. niore economically independent f and Texas-yer before and have come to tliat a con the danger of being dependent AJe City ,?ij;n sources of supply for any Yis I conv(,al factors of commerce. riau I ' ul-1'' Vast Change Is Wrought. 'sel I e nlay not' therefore, think In the nuioi. I'' t?nt an(l of the future as we N yht in and of the past. Ideas palo' h seemed remote have been con-C,-ecU V J,;ed Into the facts. Relations that Club .'ied dreams are now realities. Iso-cnn'''eU,tion Iso-cnn'''eU,tion has been changed Into world lI!Wcfl' lUership. We can no longer confine on . ftl IV"ht and action to the three-mile -viis ot if but have entered Into the wide rel''Jrin of world activity. This calls on i-r for action and for finance on a scale ; w.iiti'1 lnrgod to fit the time, the facts and jje duty. We cannot escape the re- j? onsi 1I I i ty that comes with power. It y,J not a talent we can bury In a nnp- iii"-'n ' our Pwer mnfit he used. No one ' lsVes that we use It for 111 we can !1'',l'"s".v use it for good. 1 'Irst and foremost In the future ''ps lies the duty to pay our way. We '""'ve fought the fight, we have kept Uv" fe faith. It remains to pay the bills. t'e who have given credit to others ntst now sustain our own. We who '"ok normally to world leadership In '"""'itlonal ethics and International com-''"''i-'crco must base both upon paying ''v;i promptly what we owe. The call, thero-'"':lbore, thero-'"':lbore, to finance the government Is as !l '"isplring, as vitally necessary, as basic l Its demand on Judgment and conscience con-science as were the calls of those pre-,)f pre-,)f jLous lounu uiude in the stress of wur. ''I V I |