Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-05-02
OUR DESTINY.
WHY We CAN BECOME AN EXPORT
ING NATION.

There is n Large Foreign Trade WIFI
in Reach of Our administrators
The Great Growth of Homo Plants
Has Outstrlppcd tho CountryS
Consuming Power.
The address OF Mr.. U. d. Eddy bo-
fore the Boot and Shoe Club OF Dos
ton is we'll worth reading. MIR. Eddy
is certainly in position to appreciate
tho possibilities of this country as IN
exporter of manufactured goods, and
his conviction that we have largo
foreign trade within our reach is tho
result of his long and practical
acquaintance with markets OF tho
world.
No one who looked at tho magniii-
cent resources of this country could
possibly doubt that here was to be at
some date the worlds greatest work
shop. Nowhere else can be found such
ample and cheap supplies of food for
workmen and of materials for manu-
facturc. Hero is an immense ter
ritory and n vast population included
within single customs system. Here
arc tho most abundant watcr powers,
and hero arc the vastest deposits of
coal. The only reason why any per-
sons have doubted our destiny as tho
greatest international factory was that
wages were higher hero than else
where. But there has been a growing
conviction in tho minds of manufac-
turers that those economists who long
ago pointed out tho difference be-
tween the ratio of wages and tho cost
of labor were right. Mr.. Eddy
emphasizes this. The superior energy
and intelligence of labor in this
country, and especially tho freer uso
of those mechanical devices that re-
duce the amount of labor in given
amount of product, reduce the cost of
labor often below and generally to n
point not much if any above the cost
of labor in countries where wages are
lower, but whero tho laborer is OF in
ferior capacity and where larger
proportion of work is dono by hand.
II tho real cost OF labor is never much
higher here thnn in Europe, and is
often little lower, the only obstacle
in tho way of the American manufac-
turer's extensive appearance in the
markets of Europe, Asia. Africa, South
America and Australasia is removed.
The limited part taken by the Ameri-
can manufacturer in internationa'
trade is due primarily to the superb
advantages the homo market Afforded
him. Tint market must always re-
main his best one. The manufacture.
ers of no other country have home
market to compare with it in the mum
Der and buying ability Of the people,
in the territory that can be reached
without crossing customs boundary
in tho facility and choapness of trans
portation. But in the process of time
the growth of manufacturing plants
has outstripped tho consuming capac
ity Of our own people. A considerable
portion of our wheels must stand still
unless we find customers outside of ouI
own country. The American manu-
facturer needs q foreign market, moi
as substitute for tho home market
but rs supplement to it. 1t is there
fore cause of congratulntion that tn
conditions. are SO favorable to US il
South America and in some other por
lions of the world. The revival @
protectionist attacks in Europe up
on our meats, and the extension @
whent culture in India, Siberia, Souti
America and Australia, emphasize til,
Importance of developing our expor
of manufactured goods, II limo of busi
ness which, as Mr.. Eddy says. ha
been well termed tho balances whes
OF trade; it keeps things going whe1
the steam pressure temporarily drops
journal of Commerce and Com
mercial Bulletin.
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