Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-22
NEED OF own SHIPS
Merchant Marine Is Essential
Part of Business.
HELPS TO BUILD TRADE
How the Manufacturer Would Profit
Explained by P. H. W. Rose.
COMPARED TO A BIG STORE
Competition Abroad So Great, He
Says, Necessity Is Felt-object
of the League.
HELPS TO BUILD TRADE
COMPARED TO A BIG STORE
BY PATRICK II. w. ROSS

president Of the National Marine League.)
Just as the delivery wagons Of any de-
partment store are an essential part of
the general business Of that store, SO is
national merchant marine an essential
part OF the general business of a nation.
No one managing a big department store
would be so foolish as to depend upon
the loan of a competing department
stores delivery wagons every time he
wished to deliver a bale of goods to a
customer.
He would provide his store with its
own delivery wagons. And yet that Is
exactly what the great department store
OF the United States does not do.
For we must remember that every great
manufacturing and commercial nation II
in very truth a huge department store.
and that justolike any other smaller
store, it must conform to the practical
and comparatively simple rules of bust.
ness and strike its national balances OF
trade and profit with the same mex
orable precision that any business, great
or small, is compelled to do.
Germany, France, Great bruaif anu
Japan are all national department stores,
as we are, and they are our sturdy conf
petitors in trade They all have their
own delivery wagons. We have not.
1t il true that ours is the largest oe.
partment store of any under one roof,
or. to be very exact, within certain con-
tiguous territorial boundaries-viS-' the
n Is also true that ours does by Tar
the largest business between its own de-
partments.
Just a Swapping Of Jackknives.
The department of New York does
big business with the department OF Call
fornia: that Of Illinois with MISSOURI
Maine with Pennsylvania; each with the
other. and all with all. but when all Is
said, what Is it but a huge swapping OF
departmental jackknives" one with. an
+other?
II is the goods a store sells to persons
outside that store that makes the money
for that store. .
It is not what a store sells to its own
employees and charges to the salary cIeu ~
another that counts. 1t IL the stun IL
sells to outsiders. to those who nave no
connection with the business tnat niaAe<
it possible for that business to commune.
In national terms, IL Is the por
trade that is the very life OF CONNER
cial country.
II was all very well, years ago. Wner
many of our departments were ouipolns
up-in other words, when many OF ouf
states were undeveloped. Then the man.
MO curing departments sold to the raw
states and territories and those raw
states in turn sold their agrlcultura
produce to the outsider.
But two things have happened since
then: The formerly raw .San ..s e.
and in most cases are themselves man.
ufacturing states; and most important
of ali, the population Of the country MAJ ma,
increased SO enormously that neariy az
the AGRICULTURAL produce. excepting raw
cotton. is consumed at home. There Is
nothing approaching to the amount pei
capita Of our foodstuffs. wheat, hour ano
meats sold to the 'outslder To-Day al
was sold thirty years ago.
siders. What can it be but manufac-
tured goods?
Must Reach Outsiders.
A home market was and is a grand
thing, SO long as at some point tas III
the case Of our formerly enormous export
OF foodstuffs) our "home" buyers OF
..home' manufactured goods could get
their produce sold to OUTSIDERS
But now that so very large proper
ton of the homegrown produce -
itself consumed by the vastly Increased
population Of home manufacturers ana
their EMPLOYEES. things go round in an
ever-tightenjng circle and industrial ano
financial disaster await Us with absolute
certainty, unless we very greatly increase
our sales OF manufactured goods 10 out
siders. For example, the balance OF
trade in our .avor in 1911 was 800 mil
lions OF dollars: that is, the value OF our
exports, exceeded the value OF our I'M
ports by that sum
The value Of the raw cotton exported
from this country was just about 800 mil
Hons NJ dollars
In other words. lotion anc cotton alone
paid the nations bills for interest on all
kinds of bonds and dividends On all kinds
of stocks in all kinds of American enter
prises held by outsiders
don't know that cotton did pay these
bills in full. because it is almost impos-
sible 10 tell the gross amount or foreign
investment in American lands. buildings.
stocks and bonds. on which rents, divi-
dends and interest have to be RENTED to
Europe
In addition to the foregoing it is esti-
mated that $500 O0O, 600 a year is paid in
ocean going freight charges, and 500. =
OO0. 600 Is spent in Europe by American
tourists and in remittances by laborers.
millhands and clerks here. to their fami-
lies and friends in Europe. Especially is
this true Of Italians Greeks and the
Slavonfc population OF our great cities.
As a Set-Of to Cotton.
But we do know that outside of cotton
all the rest of this countrys energies
were a set-off against what We had to
pay for things imported into this coun-
try.
IL the great manufacturing countries
had to depend almost exclusively upon
their own respective home markets as
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