and who have been far from a realization of its actual importance to us. It has been a place to which to go for a Summer holiday.
"But, suddenly, they find that they cannot sell their cotton there or their copper, that they cannot market their stocks and bonds there, that they cannot send money to their families who are traveling there, because there is a war. To such men the war must have made it apparent that interdependence among nations is more than a mere phrase.
"All our trade and all our economic and social policies must recognize this. The world has discovered that money without credit means little. One cannot use money if one cannot use one's credit to draw it whenever and wherever needed. Credit is intangible and volatile, and may be destroyed over night.
"I saw this in Venice.
"On July 31 I could have drawn every cent that my letter of credit called for up to the time the banks closed. At 10 o'clock in the morning on August 1, I could not draw the value of a postage stamp.
"Yet the banker in New York who issued my letter of credit had not failed. His standing was as good as ever it had been. But the world's system of international exchange of credit had suffered a stroke of paralysis over night.
