The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-01
FOREIGN TRADE
 ID BE INCREASED Two Billion Dollars Is the
 Goal Set HAVE RAW MATERIALS Is Richest Country on the Globe and Should Be Workshop to Supply All the Western Hemisphere
HAVE RAW MATERIALS
By JONATHAN WINFIELD

 Washington, September S0.-tSpecial)- nation wide movement to increase the foreign trade of the United States to the enormous total of s2,o00,0 100000 within the next five years has been inaugurated by the leading manufacturers and exporters of the country. It has interested the ] business men from the Atlantic to the
 Pacific, and it promises to make the great European producers do some fresh calculating
 This movement is not altogether new, but the extent of it's present sweep and l the magnitude of it's ambitions are just being realized. It means that ultimately l the United States will become a work shop for the manufactured products used l in the Western Hemisphere, and that it will further become the supply center l for the great industrial development of | Africa and Asia.
 Just now the manufacturers of Great Britain and Germany dominate the South l African, the South American and the Asatic markets. They have their vast merchant marine and they have pushed their trade into remote regions. The story of this trade conquest is told by | about every consular report received in Washington, and this same story has aroused the enterprise of American pro- ducers. It has caused them to rise and demand their part of the foreign business of the world.
 This country is rich In raw materials l It is richer than any other country on | the globe, yet it has been content in the past to supply Europe with the materials and allow Europe to supply the consun- CTS of the earth with the goods made from these materials. This Is an econom- ic situation that the American manufac- turers have organized themselves to rem edy. They are now determined to go into these foreign markets themselves and to keep the profits now going into Euro peans pocketbooks at home.
 This was the incentive for the organi- zation of the American Manufacturers
 Export association, which held a meet ing in New York on September 25. This Is the reason that such men as John Ball Orborne chief of the Bureau of Trade Relations, Department of State; A. IT. Baldwin. chief of the Bureau of Manu- lecturers. Department of Commerce and Labor; Consul General Robert P Ssin- ner, at Hamburg: John Candler Cobb of Boston; Consul General Edwin s. Gun ningham, at Bombay; Representative Redfield and others are cooperating with the manufacturers in this trade extension policy.
 These men have made study of trade conditions. They have seen the extent of the European export business and that of the United States. They have grasped the business of the commerce which Americans could get, If they should go after it. and they are prepared to tell the country about 1t. Ienry TT Wj1Ic cecrafarv of tbis hoI1, of manufacturers has also studied the situation. He has realized the possibili- ties of the export trade and has spent years hnpressing the facts upon the pro- ducers in America. In a statement MT. Wills says
 "The fact that the value of American manufacturers exports increased by S140,- GOO and that the value of these exports has reached s91O,00OO00 during the fiscal year just closed. gives us a substantial basis for our claim of billion and quarter in export trade in 1912, and q two billion dollars export trade within the next five years.
 "Another point of unusual importance In this connection is the fact that the quiescent state of domestic trade is nat urally causing the American manufac- turer to look more and more into foreign fields for business. The opportunity for a record breaking export trade was never so great as that which the present year offers. Our association is engaged in making the foreign markets the means of maintaining and extending our domes- tic and commercial prosperity.
 We recognize the need of a business attitude in obtaining the trade favors of the entire world. By the elimination of the surplus trade idea and the many minor evils which have so long affected our American export trade. we feel that belief a VOnmp ti- fed
 There are a great many ways in which the American producers can ex- tend their trade in foreign fields Better international banking facilities, the inn provement of the American merchant marine. foreign tariffs, and concilatory policy with commission houses, more in- timate knowledge of foreign trade condl- tions, credit reports and inquiries. and a closer cooperation of the consular ser vice and the other government bureaus for the extension of American foreign trade are some of the means which may be employed"
 The opening of the Panama canal. the development of South America and the opportunities for business in the Orient are some of the possibilities that are giving the manufa cturers food for thought and calculation. Shall Europe be allowed to monopolize these markets?'' IS a question WHICH AineTlcdn DuSlHeSS men are asking each other all over the country.
 When the canal is opened, the west coast of South America. now remote, will lie at the very door of the Atlantic sea- board. It will even be more accessible than in the east today. In the past the Europeans have circled Cape Horn 10 reach the communities west of the Andes. and they have sold goods there without competition from America.
 The same is true of the Orient. Ameri can manufacturers of the east have shipped them to the far east by water, an expensive movement. With the canal open they can reach the Orient by water and do it for less per ton than can the manufacturers of Europe
 All these things and mahy more have interested American manufacturers and caused them to unite in one common ef- fort to double the export trade of this country in half decade. If this comes to pass the domestic prosperity of the people of the United States will increase in proportion. It is a big job the man. ufacturers have undertaken. but the re- wards will be approximately large.
 Prisoner Escapes
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