EXCERPTS FROM HEARINGS, 813
(¢) Banking and Credits.

Financing credit through banks—Henry W. Louis, secretary and
treasurer of the Brownstein-Louis Co., Los Angeles, Cal., said:
Up i the last year or so practically every European banker has been represented
 in outside countries. Our own banks did not have the privilege until
the new banking law went into effect, and since that time I know that several
American banks have established their agencies or branches in South America,
which will have the effect of putting the customers of these banks in closer
touch with conditions in those countries. We have not had that; we have it
now, and it probably will assist us, when things are settled, in getting this
foreign business. The European countries have had the best of us in the
past on the question of terms and credits. Manufacturers in Germany, England,
 and France were able to sell goods in South America and Mexico and discount
 their bills immediately and practically sell for cash. We could not do
that in this country. We probably can not do it now, and it would be a very
much simpler matter if American banks were established in these foreign
countries with branches, but I think the principal thing we need is more shipping.
 We will get the business if we can deliver the goods afterwards.
Willis H. Booth, vice president of the Security Trust &amp; Savings
Bank, and general manager of the Hot Point Electric Heater Co.,
Los Angeles, Cal., said:
I know, in discussing the oriental business with some Chinese gentlemen we
had with us a month or two ago, they felt that the prospect of business there
in other lines largely depend upon the banking facilities which were accorded.
Waldo M. Marshall, president of the American Locomotive Co.,
New York City, says:
If we had to deal, for instance, through a German bank, we felt that practically
 everything that occurred in regard to our transaction which could be
found out from the outside was known to our competitors when the next
time came. The amount of money that we were paid for our locomotives was
known to that bank to the last dollar. * * * They often knew all that we
paid for freight, and everything of that kind, and we felt that at times we
saw the evidence of that knowledge when it came to the next bidding.
*# * * To my mind, the advantage of American banks or branch banks of
American houses in foreign countries is not only the facilities for exchange, etc.,
but the knowledge that they will have first-hand of the excellence of certain
investments and the knowledge brought home to the people here, so that they
will finally invest their money there.
# * * There is no reason why our people should not invest more or less
of their money in those directions. And when they do, we will have the advantage
 or the preference that would come with trade following the capital.
Moritz Thomsen, manufacturer of flour, Seattle, Wash., stated
that—

I do not know that there is anything that the Trade Commission can do for
us, except one thing, that perhaps would assist us more than anything else,
would be to get American banks in foreign countries. * * *
So, so far as South America and Central America, what interests us more
than anvthing else is banks.

U. G. Orendorf, secretary-treasurer of the Parlin &amp; Orendorff Co.,
Canton, Ill.,, manufacturers of agrianlinral implements, thinks that
the matter of export trade with South America is:
In its final analysis, it is a question of finance, and our principal weakness
in this respect is the lack of American banking connections. Jf our banks in
the States would join in the organization of a financial institution in the South
American countries for the purpose of assisting or financing purchasers, the
business concerns of the United States would undoubtedly be in a position to
secure a great deal of the trade which has heretofore gone to Germany and
other European countries.