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Show I HOW BUSINESS IS I TO BE STIMULATED ' One of the most encouraging re views of trade tomes lrom YY. P. Con- l sins, the New York financial writer, who makes this reassuring announce ment: "From all indications, stock of i goods in Dip hands of rnanufac- I turers and wholesalers have been greatly reduced which moan? that a large volume of potential bu I ing Is in sisht. When thla nlume ' of buyinc, dammed up for six Jfl months or more by the resist- I ance of the public to Hie prevail- fl ins price scale, becomes a real II i'y. the beginning of the end of Jfl the long season of business de- fl prcssion may with confidence be B hailed by workimn and mauufac H But one of the most important prob- B lems this country must solve before .1 business is on a sound basis, is the I crisis in our foreign trade, Mr. Cousins declares, and be urges the necessity of Americans entering the undeveloped flfl parts of the world with their capital in order to create markets for the sur-: sur-: J plus products of this country, and he J explains the situation as follows: "There are two fundamental reasons Bfl Why, If the United States is to retain, Bfl eren to a limtied extent, tho position f in world trade which was won during J the war, we shall have to enter the i undeveloped parts of tho world and fl with our capital and enterprise con I tr)bute to their development. . f:l "In the first place the ordinate hu v man elation of debtor to creditor lTs the creditor decided advantages H OTer all non creditors as regarda the business needs of the debtor, other H things, of course being equal. A repre- v'a sentatlve of an American locomotive factory In any kind or noma! times, for example, would have email chance jSj of obtaining orders from an Argentine 'lH railroad financed with British capital. :'M Briefly, a creditor nation will aJwajrs have permanent advantages In the de-jjS de-jjS velopment of its foreign trade with ?jB. countries to which it has loaned funds, advantages which cannot be jgjSB duplicated in any other way. "In tho second place, the United I States ha- reversed Its pre war po5i .tion in world financing and become a creditor nation. A few years ago we owed Europe $4,000,000,000 to $6,000. 000,000. Now we are a creditor na tion to the extent, according to some estimates, of nearly $20,000,000,000. Whereas, formerly, to correct our balance bal-ance of imprest, due, to pay for ship ping and Insurance services, to meet ih expenses of Americans travflinp abroad and of the remittance draft! sent out by Immigrants resident hre. we had to send out more than we rc ceived, so now to correct an Interest balance which has swunc heavily in our favor we must be prepared to receive re-ceive considerably more goods and services than we send out. This is B mathematical necessity lr is imper atlve that we realize the change of outlook and increase of rcspons ihil ity which this change from a debtor to a creditor nation entails " Few of our financial experts have given the same study to our foreign relations as has Mr. Cousins., and. therefore, not many of them see the importance of America making extraordinary ex-traordinary efforts to retain foreign markets Last year the goods shipped from our ports to other parts of the world totaled eight billion dollars This represents a big fraction of the entire business of the United States, and, if that trade should be In great part lost, a serious industrial upset would result. It is, therefore, most essential to America's welfare that America do its utmost to retain this export business. |