The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-23
When the Change Began

Within year or two after the organ ization of the large corporations common ly called big business, we began to gain in exports of manufactured articles and salned so rapidly that last year il was pcssifie to report that nearly 50 per cent Of our exports was manufactured com modities
 To this fact Mir. Hammond called. at 1 tention in his address, asserting that much prejudice, some of 1t inspired for political purposes and much of 1t no doubt due to lack of good information has prevailed in the United States against so-called big business. Yet the record of the past l5 years makes it clear that our great ad- vance as manufacturing nation and our marvellous progress in foreign trade rep resented by our manufactured commodi- ties could only be developed through what Is called large scale production. In that way, England has secured a vast amount Of foreign trade, has also Germany. The economic principle which lies at the bottom of large scale production is fos- tered by Great Britain and has been fos- tered by Germany. Unless large score production be not merely tolerated but en- couraged in the United States we are bound to be seriously handicapped in our search for foreign markets.
 A Good Illustration
 The Federal Steel company of Illinois has passed out of existence or at least. has been absorbed by the United States Steel corporation. It furnished when an independent organization, however, an excellent illustration of what is meant by large scale production In fact the operation of this corporation was the germ of the plan upon which the organi- zation of the United States Steel cor poration was based. This corporation, the United States Steel company, has been able in about F years to increase by many millions the sale of steel and iron products In other lands. and this Is sale which would not have been possi- bie had the industry been split up into many Independent units. When Norman B. Ream and Marshall Field and H. H. Porter of Chicago and others were giv- Ing careful thought to the best methods of increasing the influence of productive capacity of the Federal Steel company, their attention was directed to the fact that the company was producing very few articles. There were other corpora- tions, some of them steel and iron pro- ducts of another kind. So it seemed that II these corporations, each of which had competent organization-organi being the thing chiefly sought-could be brought into common association or re- lation, then the Federal Steel company would possess fine organization or az gregation of organizations and would be able to enter the market with any num- Der of commodities. And this it did This is all that is meant by large scale pro- duction.
 A Thorough Analysis
 One of the features of MT. Hammond S address which seemed especially to in- terest the members of the export associa- : tion was his analysis of certain features of the foreign trade of Great Britain and of Germany. For instance, Great Britain has always followed the line of least fesistance. Nearly 40 per cent of her en- tire exports goes to her colonies where there are preferential tariffs. About 30 per cent of her exports is marketed in manufacturing companies which have a protective tariff and the remainder of her exports goes to countries where there is no competition by home industry. The United States and Germany have pursued a different course, partly, no doubt, because neither country has large colonial associations. Our trade and that of Germany is with countries which have highly organized competitive industries. MT. Hammond declared that America and Germany have been ''bucking the center while Great Britain has played the epds.' This Is especially fortunate for the United States in view of the oppor- tunities for the further development of the foreign market.
 
 mond, "a commanding position in the worlds export trade In spite of the facts that we have been lacking In systematic effort, have been handicapped by inade- quate banking and transportation facili- ties and are without any considerable colonial possessions. In view of this there is no doubt of the potential ability of the United States to become eventually the dominating factor in the worlds com merce. We should probably have se- cured a much larger trade in other coun- tries if our own home market had been able to absorb substantially the product of our national industries. The value of the products absorbed by our home mar ket is about $35. .000,oOs. 900 a year. or prac- tically twice as much as the entire ex- port trade of the world. No other na- ton has such a market as this. For ex- | ample, within the small area of New York city the value of manufactures ex- ceeds each year the money value of the total exports of Great Britain. Another great advantage which we have is the diversification of our industrial products and in this respect no other nation can compare with us."