Some of the Governments will require foreign loans. Capital, I
repeat--and I mean really American capital--is the urgent need. We are
not asked to make them a present of capital to buy our goods with, but
if we do not help finance them and buy their products they will have
nothing with which to buy our goods.
The situation invites us to give capital and credit to take the place of
the European supply which has failed. One need not fear that the returns
will be uninviting, for Europe would hardly have been supplying credit
and capital to Latin America as a mere matter of amiability. Thus our
capital must regenerate Latin-American prosperity, while our bankers,
merchants, and manufacturers are engaged in making solid, permanent
arrangements, not opportunistic ones, to take possession of a great
share in the present and still more in the growing future development
and commerce of these countries. Capital, then, and credit are the first
requisites.
The war has had the effect of making the Latin-American countries
realize for once the economic importance to them of the United States.
The products of some, like the tin of Bolivia and the nitrates of Chile,
have been going almost entirely to Europe.
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