OCR Text |
Show OO ; ENGLISH MONEY GOING LOWER Now York, Aug. 31. Tho tremendous tremen-dous export trade of the United States In which this country leads the world for the (Inst time, was imperiled imper-iled today by an alarming drop In foreign exchange rates, notably pounds sterling. At tho close of business tonight the English pound brought only $4.65 1-4 In American money. This is a drop from Ub normal value of 31 3-4 cents; from Its value August 1 of 20 3-4 cents and from its quotation quota-tion last night of 5 3-4 cents, a 24-hour 24-hour break in values without precedent prece-dent It marked the lowest value yet recorded In an excited market, where every day recently has sot a now record rec-ord of depreciation, and It Indicated ' that pounds sterling were headed downward with a momentum and velocity ve-locity that promised to take them to levels unthought of ten days ago. In tho face of this rapid depreciation deprecia-tion bankers here are wondering tonight to-night how much longer Great Britain will pay the premium and buy goods in this market which she can get elsewhere else-where where the value of her money is greater. They were of the opinion opin-ion that American factories and producers pro-ducers would feel the pinch if rates went much lower; that cancellation of war orders for everything except what Great Britain cannot afford to do without powder and shot, rifles and shrapnel, aeroplanes and automobiles automo-biles would follow, and that there would be few new orders placed by London In America except for positive posi-tive necessities. The reason and the remedy seemed clear in the minds of international bankers here. The English pound has depreciated, they said, because London has failed to provide a method meth-od here of paying the big bills now becoming due to American shippers; the remedy would be, they thought, to establish quickly very quickly, unless un-less pounds sterling should be further debased a mammoth credit loan in this market. America does not want British gold to pay for supplies, on this point opinion 'was unanimous The vaults of Wall street and the banks in the interior are already choking with gold. More gold would tend to create a period of enormous inflation. What New York bankers want to do is to send Great Britain an enormous enor-mous sum of money, to be spent in paying bills here, on approved collateral col-lateral of high-class American railway and industrial stocks and bonds. This, it is believed, will restore conditions to nearly normal. Apparently Great Britain intends to adopt this course Officially, neither Great Britain nor her financiers have given an inkling lo bankers here of what they intend to do to remedy the situation. When the deputation of British bankers reaches New York ori its mission mis-sion to straighten the market they will come with a plan, It -was authoritatively authori-tatively said tonight, of which tbetr associates in Now York are wholly in ignorance. In this connection, it was learned tonight, that aome of the biggest big-gest International banking houses In New York had pointed out in their cable conferences to London financiers finan-ciers three weeks ago the danger thnt lurked ahead and had suggested a course, which, if pursued, would have steadied tho markets for a month or until permanent methods of correc tion could be applied. That cablo E message, it was said, had been en- p tiroly ignored. To this day there j& has been no reply to it. nn ' li |