Foreign Business Better i The 128th annual meeting of shareholders of the National City Bank of New York, was held at the head office, 55 Wall Street on January 9. Mr, James H. Perkins, chairman of the board of directors, presided. The chairman in his speech said:
It is with satisfaction that I report that this organization has met the new conditions and problems created by war abroad in such a way as to protect the Bank's interests and at the same time extend in several directions the service we render our customers.
While it may seem unnecessary I should like, before reviewing our operations in detail, to emphasize the point that business and ed can derive no lasting gain from war. Actually, war is the negation of all that business stands for. Business consists of the exchange of mutually useful goods and services, and its success depends upon the maintenance of good faith and order in all relations, War is a violent interruption of normal business processes, producing incalculable hazards and appalling waste, and no temporary profit can offset its ultimate cost. The world has never fully recovered from the last war. It left a legacy of debt, complete or partial destruction of currencies and monetary systems in some of the most important countries of the world, and a disruption in trade channels and price relationships unparalleled in history. The great depression was the aftermath of war, and many of the problems with which we have struggled in the United States in the past ten years have descended in a direct line from August 1914.
Recent weeks have recalled to us the temporary paralysis of trade and finance which took place at the outbreak of war in 1914. The greater relative economic strength of this country, and also, I believe, the preparations made by business and banking anticipating such an event, aided in avoiding a corresponding disturbance this autumn. Business has in fact continued the forward movement already under way. The volume of orders placed and the volume of industrial production have risen sharply further since the war began. Short term money rates, with which we are largely concerned, have hardly beea affected, and the prices of bonds after a temporary drop have recovered substantially under pressure of the huge funds available for investment.
"None of us can now say whether this war will be active or inactive, short or long. Nor can we easily appraise the longer term effects on our country, One thing at least, the record of four months has shown, that American business men recognize El the dangers that war holds for them.
\was proved through the costly experience of the World War that any stimulus given to business by war orders is dearly bought if it results in price inflation, or in a boom based upon the installation of new facilities which in peace time could not pay their way. Infationary movements bring only an illusion of prosperity, and end in debts, taxes, and depression, and the tas: of guarding against these dangers will require self-restraint by all elements in our economic life.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.