TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 589 



But the real big body of the funds will be raised by the sale of de- 

 benture bonds issued by the Foreign Trade Financing Corporation. These 

 bonds will be the long-time securities, probably running for ten years, 

 and will be secured generally by the assets of the corporation, such as 

 mortgages, bonds, and other securities which it takes from the borrowers 

 in Europe, and other countries. 



These bonds can be issued to the extent of $1,000,000,000, and there 

 is a broad intimation that each particular state, or other geographical 

 division, will be financed to the extent and in proportion of the amount 

 of these bonds purchased by the investors of that particular community. 

 In plain language, this would mean that if the state of Iowa and the agri- 

 cultural interests of Iowa are to be financed by this big corporation to 

 the extent of, say, $100,000,000, it will be necessary to sell $100,000,000 

 of the corporation's debenture bonds to the long-time investors of this 

 state — people who have been in the habit heretofore of investing in land, 

 mortgages, stock, and other long-time securities. 



In other words, if we are to get foreign finances on a really sound 

 economic ground, and the plan of the Edge Law corporation is sound 

 economically, the process is going to be accomplished thru the savings 

 of the rank and file of the common people and not thru access to the 

 mysterious and mythical millions of a few rich men in the East, nor thru 

 the uneconomic further government borrowing by issuing war bonds, 

 and its consequent danger of inflation of our banking system. It will 

 mean close and careful saving by every man, woman and child, first, thru 

 the accumulation of small sums in our banks, witb the accumulation of 

 interest thereon, until such amounts reach a thousand dollars or two 

 tliousand dollars, and then the reinvestment of same in the debenture 

 bonds of the Foreign Trade Financing Corporation. 



There is nothing mythical about it, but the result will be not only the 

 enabling of our country to hold its position as the largest creditor in the 

 world, not only the return of prices of farm products to a stable and 

 profitable price level, but also the increasing self-respect and develop- 

 ment of character which will come to all of the people as a result of 

 increased personal thrift and saving. 



You may begin to look for better days as a result of the preliminary 

 functioning of the War Finance Corporation, if so authorized, and as a 

 result of the permanent development of Edge Law corporations. The 

 price plane is ready to start up again, and while it may be a little slow 

 in developing speed enough to rise very rapidly, anything that insures its 

 rising will be beneficial to business generally. 



A few days ago I heard a prominent author remark that "We can see 

 thru our glass darkly when we attempt to look into the future, but it is 

 awful how clearly we can see when we turn the glass around and look 

 into the past." 



Problems of Local Financing. 



And then while the corn belt is doing its share in contributing its 

 savings and accumulations toward working out the big problems of for 

 eign trade, perhaps we have some problems of local financing to be 

 worked out in a way and manner which has not been heretofore at- 



