The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-26

And the Money IntcSttd III ~
Uncle Sans Export Bureau ana its
Foreign Drummers-A Confidential
Service For Business Men-Latc
information as to Packing-Expcrt,
Who Will Lecture ON Trade-The
New Government Directory o. For
CiSn Business Forms.
Downright, 1911. by Frank q. car
penter.)
WASHINGTON. d. c.
Suppose YOU had "a business which
brought in four thousand dollars for
every minute of every day ana every
night for the three hundred working
DAYS Of the wear! Would it not pay
"a take care of it? oppose you SOLD
on every one of those days a total
of about six million dollars, and IN
the wear something like eighteen hun
dred millions. would not you WANT
to increase it!
That is Via Uncle Sam is doing as
to our foreign trade. His exports IN
1908 sold for over one billion eight
hundred million dollars. They were
almost as much last year, and they
will run close to the same amount
this. We are among the chief mer-
chants in the great market mouse Oh
the world. We are still led by Great
Britain and Germany, but our foreign
trade is rapidly growing, and the day
will come when we shall be the big
gest traders of the whole world.
This letter will tell you some OF the
means by which Uncle Sam, patriarch,
is increasing that trade. There are
two departments which are especially
devoted to it. One is the agricultural
branc Of the Government, when mas
to do with our crop exports, and the
other is the Department Of Commerce
and Labor, which deals with Doth
manufacturers and crops. The crops
have always mad a large part in the
business. The manufactures are of
more recent growth, but they are mul-
t;plying so rapidly that they promise
in time to surpass all That when
comes from the soil.
Our Big Industrial Business.
Have you any idea how much our
manufacturing business amounts to?
l dislike to use figures. They mean
SO little when they get into the mil
lions. / had an interview not long
ago with Mrs. Hetty Green, the rich
est woman on earth, during which
she told me her mind refused to work
on anything over 81, 900, 600. My
mind is stunned by d hundred thou
sand, and the word billion means
nothing but exceedingly large n
only way to realize such conceptions
is by homely comparisons.
Well, in figures the products we
make annually in our factories are
worth fifteen or sixteen billions of
dollars! They are so many tina if
every man, woman. and child on this
big round earth could nave an equal
share of them the amount held by each
would be just SO. If they were
all divided among our own hundred
million population each Of US would
ave $3.50 worth, and the share Of
each family would be $3.50 or more.
Again look at tho money! invested in
our manufacturing business. The cap
ital is about equal to the product, and
the cost of the materials annually
used is somewhere between nine and
ten billion dollars. The industries
here taken INTO account are only those
confined to the factories. and the men
employed in them are five or six hun
dred thousand. The census divides
our great industries into fourteen
groups, and of them five are each
making products of more than 81
600, 000, 600 a year
Moreover, the 0 are steadily
increasing, and we need more foreign
trade to keep the hands busy. Our
foreign sales already foot up over
$76S. 600. 600, and had we the markets
We could easily make it a billion.
They now amount to about As per cent
of our exports, which is 10 per cent
more than they We're in 190O and over
double the of our exports Of
manufactures in the YEAR 1890. In
deed, We are rapidly climbing to the
top among the nations which are sell
ing the most goods made by machine
and by hand. We now rank third. be-
ing only exceeded by Great Britain
and Germany.
Uncle Sam'S Export Bureau.
All this is preliminary to a talk
which | have just had with Mr.. A. H
Baldwin. the chief of the bureau of
manufactures Of the Department OF
and Labor. and of the
story of how Uncle Sam is trying
to push foreign trade. This bureau
was established to collect information
IS TO the openings for American goods
and as to where and how the good:
should be shipped. 1t is operated il
conjunction With the consular Serv-
Ice, and gathers all sorts of inferma-