El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-04-30
SAYS j. 8. MAY
LEAD NATIONS
Cabinet Member Asserts that
America Has Chance to Be
First in World of Trade.

Philadelphia. Pa, April So.-Great
commercial expansion for the United
States as a result Of the European war
was forecsat by secretary William c.
Redfield Of the department of COM
merce. in a speech here today before
the American Academy Of Political and
Social Science. Both Germany and
Great Britain, the secretary Of com
merce said, were in danger Of losing
their supremacy in the foreign trade
II the war continued
NO one, L think he said, would
be surprised to find the United States
second in the worlds competition, nor,
IL the war shall long continue, be as
tOnished to find her first" The United
States heretofore has been third.
1T is not necessary" he said. ito
review the history Of the critical
months Of August and September, last
never think OF that period without
thankfulness to the men in private
business and finance who with great
courage and wise resource pulled US
through those trying weeks We are
concerned, however, chiefly 10 consider
what the extraordinary change is which
has come over the face Of our foreign
trade since these things were done.
Great Floating Debt Lifted
"A floating debt Of perhaps 100000
00o has been paid in goods, and not
in gold. Some of the gold we had ex-
owed before the war has come back
to US in pay for debts due US. 1t
amounts since the first Of December
to over S600,OO0.OOO. We are saving
money as a nation at an astonishing
rate. The nations of the world turn
to US for cash We are lending the
world money and we are selling the
world goods, and both to such an ex-
tent that our foreign financial out
look and the condition Of our export
trade has taken on within ten months
an entirely new significance.
The secretary said that there was
too much industrial inertia" when
the necessity for broadening the for
eign outlook Of the country developed
Training in national inability mad
done its work" he continued. ''and
when the hour Of opportunity struck,
relatively few Of US were ready TO take
the step Of progress"
One Great Nation at Peace.
1T is doubtless risky he continued,
TO fOreteu what the ultimate effects
of the current war shall be upon our
commerce We know where We were
before the war began great and
growing competitor of others who had
many advantages over US. We know
where we are now while the war goes
on-the one great industrial and com
mercial nation which is at peace and
certain to remain So One Of our great
competitors has been for eight months
out Of the market No one has suf-
Tered from her competition during that
period Another and lesser comDetf-
tor also has been excluded A third
great competitor has been so intensely
occupied in the struggle as TO be I'M
able to sustain at highest pitch in other
fields the commercial enterprises which
have made her great, and a fourth.
having much of her industrial terri
tory occupied by hostile troops. is in
a measure crippled thereby in the for
eign trade
Loss Of FOreIFn Prestige.
Two factors viii affect America
favorably in the coming days. one is
the loss Of good will by her COMPETE
tors through enforced absence from
business. The other is the injury to
her competitors through broken or sus-
pended organization. This is not all
The organization in many cases has
but the units which composed il have