The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-24
THE NEW AGE.
Export Business Being Reduced to a
Science.

New York. Aug. PA special to the
| Tribune from Washington says:
The new age just beginning, the age
! of commercial rivalries between the
United States and the three or four
! greatest nations of Europe, calls for a
! different kind of activity and knOWI-
/ edge from that which has characterized
! the one gone out and its predecessors
! In a remarkably able paper, out of the
| ordinary nature of consular reports
| submitted to the state department
! Consul General Frank H. Mason, at
| Frankfort, Germany, writes OF the
! quest for export markets and SHOWS
! the DEVELOPMENT of an exact, specialized
/ science of export. The individual eX-
| DOrter and the association of exporters
are reinforced by expert government
commissions, ella borately equipped and
maintained. The efforts of France and
Germany in this direction are held up
for the emulation of American manu-
facturerS and exporters and they are
warned that they cannot too soon direct
their attention to record by these Euro
pean countries.
The German export commission which
met in February, 1896 to study the Chi
nese COrean and Japanese markets,
returned after a year, bringing vast
collection of the ordinary textiles. With
prudence these samples were SHOWN
only to those specially interested, adj
mitted by card and like discretion
haracterized the reports made by the
commission. In the same manner the
out by the chambers of commerce OF
Marseilles, ROubaiX, Lill1, Bordeaux
and Lyons spent nearly two years IN
the investigation and then presented us
collections and reports to the cham
bers of commerce directly interested.
None of these technical reports have
been published and only general conciu-
SiOnS are known. Some OF these nave
been given a few months ago, coming
from the American consuls in France.
Consul General Mason says that in
missions there is broad recognition of
the fact that in foreign trade it is the
buyer and not the seller who determines
the kind of article wanted and the
manner of packing and labelling. He
makes one important statement which
Americans would do we'll to heed, name
ly that the Germans are perhaps the
abIeSt masters of this theory of export
trade and that the English have lost
much for want of it. Circulars and
catalogues will not compete effectively
with the French, German or English
merchant who is there on the spot with
his goods, duty paid and fluent sales
men to show and explain.
He cites the fact that there are spec
ialized courses of study in the German
commercial schools and to some extent
in those of England, and Belgium, with
a view to imparting knowledge of the
export trade and he insists earnestly at
some length upon the need of the pc
riOd in this country of a class of trained
young men with good manners, a prac-
teal command of the French. German
and Spanish languages, one or all, COM
bined with knowledge of a certain class
of manufactured goods and the COM
mercial methods. currencies, weights,
etc, of foreign countries. He says, 1T
is not the machine, the gun alone, but
the man behind it that wins the battles
of today on sea or land in the hot con-
f1ict of war or the busy rivalries of
peace. The merchant, he continues,
with great force, with the present and
coming generation must be, like the
Diplomatic. the consular or executive
officer, a broader, more highly trained
and better educated man than his
father or grandfather had need be.
He concludes that as no people are
gifted with quicker apprehension or
more ready and unerring grasp of OPP
portunities than those of the United
States, they viii master the science of
international commerce as they have
those of cheap transportation and eff
fective production. He regards it as
certain that the closing years of the
century are opening for the republic a
new and momentous period of activity
and national Importance.