The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1915-11-19
AN INTERESTING ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT DINNER BY
SOUTHERN'S PRESIDENT
FAIRFAX HARRISON TELLS MEM
EERS OF BOARD OF TRADE
JUST WHAT is NEEDED HERE
TO MAKE PORT GROW.

The following address was deliv-
cred by President Fairfax Harrison
of the Southern Railway at the Board
of Trades dollar dinner last night:
| What will be the ultimate and last
ing economic effects of the war in Eu-
rope no man can tell. It's progress
has been marked by worldwide
changes. In our own land certain
industries have been temporarily
stimulated, others have been tempo
rarily depressed, and, for the time
being, we have unprecedented oppor-
tunities in the markets of some of
the belligerent countries and in all
neutral countries.
The end of the war will bring
about readjustment. The demand for
munitions and military supplies will
greatly diminish and the peoples of
the belligerent countries may be eX-
pected diligently to endeavor to re-
gain their lost ground in the markets
of the world
| | need not tell the members of the
Brunswick Board of Trade of the op-
portunities that exist in our domestic
markets and in those of foreign coun-
tries, especially in Central and South
America and the West Indies, but |
will attempt to make some sugges-
tions of practical value as to how
Brunswick may best utilize existing
opportunities in foreign markets.
My first suggestion is that, while
not neglecting any so-caled war or
ders" that may be available, in the
interest of permanent prosperity at
tention should be given primarily and
particularly to efforts to develop
trade in commodities for which the
demand will continue after the war,
and that, while European competition
is slackened, our merchants and man
ufacturers should endeavor so firmly
10 establish themselves and the rep
utation of their goods in foreign mar
kers as to enable them to hold those
markets in the face OF the fierce com
petition which they are sure to meet
sooner or later.
The suggestion which I would en-
phasize more strongly than any other
lis that foreign comm cree is essential
ly barter We cannot expect simply to
sell to the people of other countries.
We must also buy from them The
commerce Of the world, with the help
of modern banking machinery, is, un-
der normal conditions, largely a mat
ter of exchanging the products of each
country for the products of other
countries and leaving relatively small
trade balances to be settled by none
tary transfers. 1t is only under alb
normal conditions, such as those
which led to the recent placing by
Great Britain and France of bonds
to the amount of five hundred mil
lion dollars in the United States, that
it is necessary to make large inter
national settlements in other ways
,han by the exchange of commodities.
No part of the money represented by
these bonds is to be sent abroad. 1t
is to remain in American banks as a
credit against which purchases of
lAmerican goods in excess of imports
of foreign goods are to be charged.
While countries with the vast wealth
of Great Britain and France can we'll
afford, under the stress of war, tenn
porarily to pay for imports with bonds
which must ultimately be paid in cash
or by shipments of goods, it is OBJ
vious that even the wealthiest country
could not permanently settle large
trade balances in this way. Statis-
tics of the trade of Great Britain un-
der normal conditions might seem to
contradict this proposition, but it
must be remembered that the people
of Great Britain have an income from
external sources substantially greater
than the difference between the to-
tai value of their exports and the to-
tai value of their imports. This is
so great that the wealth of the Brit
ish people has steadily increased in
the face of adverse trade balances.
In any country without such a large
income from other sources the ulti-
mate result of imports greatly in ex-
cess of exports would be the deple-
ton of her gold reserves and the
breaking down of her credit. 1t is to
our advantage, therefore, that the
countries which buy our goods shall
have large export sales themselves,
either to the United States or to 9th
er countries.
AS ocean-borne commerce can be
lcarried on most economically when
ships are able to obtain cargoes in
-
Ter things being equal, the people of
any country will buy most largely
from the country which buys from
them, and in the same way we may
Iexpect to find that those of our ports
which lead in exports are those hay