Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1915 — OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE. [ARTICLE]

OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE.

c M Hl Have To Take Care of the South American Republics. At the Pan-American financial conference in Washington Paul M. Warburg, a member of the Federal Reserve Board, said some things of interest to investors. He is an experienced international banker, a wise observer, and, I believe, a dependable prophet. ■ “It is certain,” he said at one point in his talk, “that the United States will be in a safer condition if in the future when placing securities to be issued for the development of our own properties we rely to a larger extent than in the past upon our own markets.” In other words, we shall not send good bonds to market in Europe merely because we can sell them at a slightly higher price. This idea, Mr. Warburg insisted, must become firmly fixed, even though we know that for some years after the end of the great war Europe will not be able to bid fbr our securities.

In the future the United States will not only have to take care of its own demands for capital, but’it will certainly have to finance a considerable portion of the legitimate demands made by the Central and South American republics. For the average American, this Washington conference may not seem significant. “It’s a pow wow of the big bankers,” most people will say, if they take the trouble to read anything of it. But let us see whether the average citizen who saves a little and invests it isn’t vitally effected: In the last 2.0 years we have sold in Europe probably more than $5,000,07)0,000 worth of securities. In the same period, the Central and South American countries have probably sold to Europe more than that amount of securities. In the next 20 years the Americas (from Canada to the Argentine) will need a great deal more than $10,000,000,000 of new capital. Our own needs will grow vastly. If we are to dispense largely with borrowing from Europe and also help largely to meet the capital demands of Canada and the lower Americas, we shall have to dig deep. Returns on capital will be better. The owner of SIOO will feel the effects of the new demands as well as the rich capitalist.—Chicago News.