398 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



part with reference to the further exportation of gold. Our financial 

 system is undergoing a radical change — a long-delayed readjustment — 

 and it is suicidal for us, as a nation, to so manage our affairs that we 

 shall be forced to continue to ship abroad additional amounts of gold. 



Now that our current indebtedness has been satisfactorily adjusted, 

 the only likelihood of a further withdrawal of gold will come from a 

 liquidation of securities. Having postponed the opening of our stock 

 exchanges until this current indebtedness was adjusted, it is reasonable 

 to conclude that this fear of a wholesale liquidation has been very 

 much exaggerated and that, as a continuing menace, it has been unduly 

 magnified. I am confident that if the stock exchanges and banks 

 cooperate in an intelligent and unselfish manner, foreign liquidation can 

 be controlled according to our desires and convenience. If it becomes 

 known abroad that it is the unalterable decision of American bankers 

 that they will not enter upon or continue in any enterprise which in- 

 volves the exportation of additional sums of gold, the greatest danger 

 through foreign liquidation will have passed. 



Broadly speaking, the only gain which foreign interests can achieve 

 frorn selling American securities is either to obtain gold from us, with 

 which to purchase in some other market, or in order to build up a credit 

 balance in this country, against which they may draw in payment for 

 merchandise, foodstuffs and munitions of war bought from American 

 manufacturers or exporters. "When we shut the door on gold exporta- 

 tion — and it is possible to do so — then we have nothing to fear from the 

 sale of American securities, in order that funds may be secured to pur- 

 chase American commodities. We will be selling commodities at our 

 own price — at a good profit — and buying securities, representing owner- 

 ship in properties untouched by the war, at bargain prices. We have 

 everything to gain and nothing to lose, providing we, as a nation, can 

 regulate the extent of the transaction. 



Perhaps there are some who will feel that this is a selfish position for 

 us to take. There has been a great deal of misapprehension concerning 

 the ethics which should determine our position with reference to repur- 

 chasing securities owned by foreign investors. In so far as this mis- 

 apprehension is the result of overwrought sympathy for this or that 

 belligerent, no comment is necessary, but so much of it as proceeds from 

 an honest and sane misapprehension warrants respect and attention. 

 We must remember that the foreign holdings of American securities 

 represent the accumnlation of half a century. To ask us to repurchase 

 the securities which we have sold during fifty years in one year, much 

 less in a day or a month, is preposterous. A considerable part of the 

 difficulty which many people experience is the result of fundamental 

 misapprehension as to the nature of these securities. They do not dis- 

 tinguish between seciirities and money. No one will dispute that if 

 foreign investors held a large amount of American paper money. 



