The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-29
BODY OF BIG BUSINESS MEN WORKING TO END THAT AMER ICAN PRODUCTS MAY BE CAR REED ACROSS OCEAN IN SAFETY.
Nv HOLLAND

New York, August 2S.-(Special) )-The company whose membership is made up of Americans who were when the war
 began planning a great expansion of our
 foreign trade is regarded here as very able body. It is one of the several ex- traordinary coincidences which have been brought out by the war in Europe that these great American statesmen. only a
 few weeks before war came with vol canic audiences and fury should have met in convention at Washington for the purpose of perfecting an organization
 which. acting in cooperation not only
 with themselves. but with the government as far as possible, should make advances
 upon the markets of the world with in-
 tent to capture some portion of them.
 All of these representative men have
 been spoke nof at one time or another as
 very great American salesmen. That hon.
 orary distinction was given to James A.
 Farrell when he was elected president
 of the United States Steel corporation. He
 had carried on a peaceful economic strug-
 gle for some 10 years. He had met Tn
 competition of this kind the great sales
 men of England and of Germany. He had
 been so successful that American ex-
 ports of the products manufactured by various subsidiaries of the United States Steel corporation commanded trade ii excess of Sl000o 900. Three years ago one of the leading executive officers of the International Harvester company said that the exports of commodities manu- factured by the Steel corporation and
 by the Harvester company would in that In mo Valllf
 s1OO, ,000oo0. He predicted that in the course of five years commodities manufactured by these two corporations would be ex- ported of the money value of S5OO,OOO,Vo0 That estimate was not deemed excessive apparently by the secretary of the de partment of commerce, MI. Redfeld. Il concluded, of course, the commodities
 manufactured by the plants which had
 been established in Russia and the fai
 east But these plants represent ex. clusively in investment of American capi- tai and the commodities which they man. ufacture and sell in other lands arc really to be reckoned with when an es- innate is made of the sale of American manufactured commodities in those countries although record of them does
 not appear in the report of our foreign commerce.
 A Sudden Emergency
 only about two weeks De1Ore the out break of the war in Europe the foreign trade council. which was authorized wher the foreign trade organization was per fected in Washington in the spring, was appointed by President Farrell. He was authorized by the national organization to appoint members of a foreign trade council This subordinate body was really to be the executive and working com mittee of the national organization. Al lsI, I1rac 1ataf Eo mt ad members of this council not the slightest apprehension existed that embarrassments to American trade would suddenly he created So swiftly do events occur that
 the very first meeting of this counci was held for the purpose of considerins
 how best the present embargo upon com
 merce could be removed and how aftei