Since the war arose gigantic volumes of foreign securities have been placed on sale in the United States which serve to protect them against an adverse exchange in the United States. By these means other nations have undertaken to protect themselves against an adverse balance of trade in the United States due to the great shipments of goods from the United States. A similar policy is necessary for the United States to protect itself in turn. It will thus be seen that the United States has loaned its Allies five thousand, five hundred and nineteen millions, and that there have been floated in the United States in addition gigantic volumes of securities of other nations, amounting probably to a still larger sum. In addition to this we have bought from Europe and paid for several billion dollars of American securities held in Europe. We have also met the cost of conducting the expense of the United States in preparing for war on Germany and Austria. THE PRODUCTIVE POWER OF AMERICA It has been estimated by excellent authority that the productive power of the United States, including the products of agriculture, of the mines, of the forests and factories on one turnover, exceeded sixty billions for last year (1917). The actual resources of the banking power of the United States, as shown by the tabulated returns, is over thirty-nine billions, so that the United States is financially the most powerful nation in the world; its credit is superior to that of any other nation in the world; its actual gold in the Federal Reserve Bank amounts to eighteen hundred millions, and in the Treasury it amounts, with the silver included, to twenty-eight hundred millions. The power of the United States properly organized and properly directed is sufficient to put the United States dollar at par throughout the world and keep it at par. THE DOLLAR AT PAR Every intelligent man understands the extreme importance of keeping the United States dollar at par in the United States, and it is of equal importance, according to the business transacted, to keep the United States dollar at par in our foreign business. We bought last year from other nations nearly three billion dollars’ worth of goods. If the United States dollar is put at par and kept at par it will become a stable measure of value in international contracts and will enable merchants all over the world to use the American dollar as a standard measure of value. This will lead to international business being transacted on American dollars and will establish the prestige of the United States throughout the world according to the actual financial and commercial strength of the United States. AMERICAN MERCANTILE MARINE