Excerpts of the President's News Conference

I saw some reference to the statement made by Senator Glass relative to foreign loans. The Senator is a man exceedingly well versed in national and international finance, and anything that he says is entitled to a very great deal of consideration. I have had under consideration several times the question of entirely disregarding proposals made for foreign loans in this country, but it had all the time seemed to me that unless there was some contact between the State Department and those who floated foreign loans here it would be probable that the Congress would pass a very drastic regulatory law. So that it seemed to me best to proceed for the time being according to the present practice, which is merely advisory and really consists in inquiring whether, if the loan is made of such and such an amount to such and such a country, it would in any way interfere with the foreign relations that exist between that country and ours at the present time. The Constitution places in the hands of the President, and he ex-ercises that authority chiefly through the State Department, the conduct of foreign relations, relations between this country and foreign countries. That is one element of them at the present time. Of course, our country doesn't undertake to make any suggestion about the desirability of a loan, or the financial soundness of it, or whether it is worthy or unworthy of investment in its bonds by investors in this country. That is a question between themselves and our bankers, a question ultimately for investors themselves to decide, whether they want to make an investment in foreign loans. So that, as I said before, our interest in it is chiefly a determination as to whether a loan made would interfere in any way in the foreign relations, the relations that exist between this country and the country proposing to make a loan.