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Show WHY BUSINESS J-OOKS BETTER. A well-known American banker writes an articlo entitled "The-Money Side of War" which Is full of newsy and Important financial facts. Of the presont business prospects in this country he sayB In part: "Suppose wo como back now to the situation in America: Those perplexing perplex-ing and oven ngonizlng days seem now to have passed. There has, In effect, been a tremendous reversal of conditions. condi-tions. Money is easy; we are importing import-ing gold on a good scale, having already al-ready brought back over $80,000,000 of what wo sent out hiBt year. Our stock exchanges are opened, with the trading free as air; not hampered by the minimum limits which still rule on tho London Stock Exchange. As to foreign holdings of our securities, they aro still bolng sold to us In large volume, and we aro easily absorbing them. We even wolcomo such sales, for they serve to ease up tho foreign oxchango situation, which now has turned almost as heavily jn our favor as, last September, it was against us. "In fact, sterling oxchange has now fallen to a point far below nofmal, around 4.66, while francs are at 6 00 German marks are c. twelve per cent discount. . This, of course, Is as bad or the foreigners as the high rate was bad for us. It means now that the Allies, who are buying munitions of war, grain and other supplies here, at the rate of, I suppose, not less than $5,000,000' a day, are obliged to lose heavily In each payment '"Many of our manufacturers and merchants have been doing wonderful business in articles relating to the war So heavj have been these war orders, running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, that now their effect ef-fect Is beginning to spread to general business which, even If it is still depressed, de-pressed, shows distinct signs of improvement. im-provement. - "And as a climax to all this Improvement Im-provement America is becoming a large factor hrthe International loan market These foreign loans have heen so scattered that perhaps tho total of them has not been fully appreciated, ap-preciated, but just lot me enumerate To various municipalities and provinces provin-ces ln Canada, American Investors have since January 1, 1915, loaned over $60,000,000; to RusbIr $25,000,-000, $25,000,-000, in addition to private credits which that government has arranged to almost the same amount; to France $40,000,000 or thereabouts; to Germany Ger-many about $10,000,000; to Switzerland Switzer-land $15,000,000; to Norway and Sweden about $3,000,000 apiece; to tho Argentine $4,0,000,000. The grand total, therefore, of these .foreign loans that we have made since war broke out, is about $225,000,000." ' 00 |