The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-11

North American Press Syndicate.
kins has stated all the reasons. But in
TINS statement the whole problem of COM
/ petition seems to be stated. The big
/ business could, by perfectly fair means,
/ due to the efficiency and economy of its
4 own productions market its commodities
at a price at which Independent manu-
4 Lacturers cannot According to the view
OF some of the economists. this is perfect
/ ~ fair competition. Yet it is a competi-
/ ton made possible by the grouping into
one big business of very great capital.
equally great ability and also the ser
vices of highly skilled artisans. A com
bina ton of this kind has made it possible
by perfectly fair means to secure such
cost of production. while at the same
time Offering reasonable opportunity for
lsir profit. even though the market price
OF the commodities is reduced But If the
price is reduced other manipulators may
be ruined.
Mr.. Untermyer's View
II Samuel untermyer, who in a recent
lecture before the Finance Forum of this
city brought the severest Indictment yet
written against men of money and bank
ing capital for organizing a banking AMI
money and credit trust, was understood
rrectly when he addressed the Repub-
Unconstitutional he is a Democrat-then
he does not see any special reason for
rejoicing that the United States has so
wonderfully increased its foreign mar
kets for the products OF manufa@
tories. Mr.. Untermyer apparently. is
have commanded. in recent years, so
much of the foreign markets because they
nave cut prices and have relied upon the
SAFE OF their products to our own people
at sufficiently high prices to make good
the losses which the sale of their COM
inOditieS in foreign markets has entailed.
This is the latest statement Of a view
quite widely held a few years ago. 1t
seems to be the opinion here that Mr..
Unternlyer would have fortified this
statement had lie shown by price lists
that what our manufacturers lost througi;
sales to foreign markets they more than
made up through their sales to the
American people.
But even If it be true that American
manufactured commodities have been
commanding foreign markets because
these have been sold at less price than
was charged for like commodities in the
United States. nevertheless there are
very able economic authorites-nOt only
here, but all over Europe. not only bust
ness men, but teachers-who insist that
this is a wise policy. Thomas A. Edison
marketing of certain of his electric APP
paratus in Germany at prices which the
German manufacturers could not match,
he was able to keep his great mills in this
country in operation to their full capacity
and to pay his skilled artisans the highest
wages. and to prevent the deprecia ton of
his plant which would inevitably have
followed had he by reason of dullness III
the American markets shut these plants
down.
Some of the political economists assert
that it is not merely a question of wheth-
er the commodities produced by one ma
ton are marketed in another nation at a
less cost than they are marketed at
home; but. instead. whether the prices in
the domestic markets are fair and wheth-
er they are not kept on a fairly reason
able basis through the ability of the
manufacturers to market their surplus at
a competitive price in the foreign mar
James J. Hills Brief Comment
In brief article prepared by James J. |
Hill for publication he seems to answer III |
ur+ e1,rc -+.4- IL
myer in his address to the Republican !
club. Mr.. Hill says that the manufactur- |
ing plants of the United States, which he |
thinks have been artificially stimulated |
at the expense of some other Industries. |
especially agricultural cannot now Oe |
fully employed unless American manufac- |
countries of the world. He asserts that !
of our exports in the year 1911, which /
We're approximately of the value of two /
billion dollars, only 90 per cent of this 1
sum consisted of manufactured articles |
ready for consumption: the other % per /
cent was foodstuffs. animals materials |
which foreign manufacturers are to use. /
But Mr. Hill thinks that If the United .
States is to compete for foreign trade +
the cost of production to the level of ou- /
more successful competitors. Apparently /
Mr. Hill is Of the opinion that the manu- t
facturers of the United States did 1
market commodities in other countries to +
the value of one billion dollars by re- I
ducing the price. For, If we had re- I
have marketed in the year 1910 a good /
deal more than one million, five hundred /
and thirty-five thousand tons of iron and
steel products. We might have brought
our total exports of this commodity TO I
figures which would almost match the 4
four and one-half million tons exported +
from the United Kingdom or the nearly +
five million tons exported from Germany I
After all. the most important feature o.
Mr. Hills brief statement. as our own +
business men look upon it. is his in T
sistence that. first of all. there should be /
true economies prGcticed not only in the
nited States, but in the households. s
next. that there should be a great in /
crease of agricultural activity and. third, |
that the dena gogue and insincere agi- /
tatOr in politics should be eliminated
Europe's Borrowings.
There is. no higher authority in the T
all conditions in the world upon which the
prices of exchange is based than John E.
Gardin, formerly of Chicago. where he +
learned this great lesson. and now vice I
president of the National City bank. In I
a brief statement made by Mr. Gardin for :
publication he explains the manner II /
which the United States financed Ger
many last summer and the reasons for il I
Mr.. Gardin intimates that from the point +
o. view of International banking the /
amonnt lent by us to Germany was not /
the fact that the transaction opened L +
new field for American finance and
brought the United States for the first
time into the concert of nations in mat
tiers financial Reading beWeen the lines /
OF Mr.. Gardin statement, as some of our