these adventurers (and they
include both sexes) make the most extravagant claims. One group
circulated a really startling prospectus. At the top was the imposing
name of the corporation with a long list of branches in every part of
the world. Then followed a list of names of individuals and firms with
their assets supposed to be part and parcel of the corporation. One man
whose name I had never heard before and who was set down as a
Pittsburgher, was accredited with assets of $250,000,000. Under other
individual and firm resources ranged from one to twenty-five million.
The list included the name of a great American retail merchant, without
his consent I might add, but the promoters had cunningly misspelled his
name, which kept them within the pale of the law. The total assets of
these "concerns personally responsible for all orders entrusted" was
precisely $340,000,000. In spite of this dazzling array of
misinformation, let it be said to the credit of the French buyer that he
failed to fall for the glittering bait.

The more you go into the reasons why so many of our business men have
failed in France, the more you find out that plain everyday business
organisation seems to be conspicuously absent. Take, for example, the
question of credit. The average American doing business in France
proceeds in the assumption that every Frenchman is dishonest. This being
his theory, he either exacts cash in advance or sells "cash against
documents." Such a procedure galls the Frenchman who is accustomed to
long credit from English, German, Swiss and Spanish manufacturers and
merchants.

Of course, behind all these American errors in judgment and tact is a
lack of organised credit information. To illustrate:

When I was in London, the English Managing Director of one of the
greatest of Wall Street Banks received an inquiry from his home office
for information about the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (the French
Line). The amazing thing was that this bank, that prides itself on its
world-wide information, had no data regarding the leading steamship line
between England and France. You may be sure that the Credit Lyonnais or
any other French banking institution has a complete record of the
American Line.

Not long ago, one of the largest banks in Chicago refused to extend
credit to a French concern, although the French Government backed up the
purchase. This concern had occasionally done business with a New York
Trust Company