New Britain herald., 1915-11-30
OUR FOREIGN TRADE
 GOOD FOR YEARS
French, Certainly, Cannot Con-
 pete with America
Correspondence of The Associated Press.>

Paris, Nov. 12.-That the volume of business between the United States and Europe will not cease with tho war, that the United States will not for several years have to fear Euro pean competition in manufactured products, is the opinion expressed here by Robert Pinot, general sec retary of the Comite des Forges de France This organization is the official representative of the Creusot works and all the other iron ana steel manufacturers of France and the medium through which the French government is now securing large quantities of war munitions for the use of the French and Russian ar mics.
 In an interview MT. Pinot said:
 Look To U. S.
 Ut is unfortunately true that we must look to the United States for several years to supply us with money or credits and with raw and manu- factured materials. say this is unfortunately true because I realize that we will be working for the next twenty years to pay what we owe. Not before that time can we begin to put any profits in our own pockets The fear that so soon as the war Is ended the manufacturers now busy making arms and cannon and shells will convert their factories into the making of products to compete with yours is ungrounded.
 Not Superhuman.
 While we French iron and steel men have been doing surprising work in our munitions, while we are turn ing out more than the English fac tories, while our people have shown a marvellous example of improvision, while we have done all this with our best plants and our mines in the hands of the Germans, we are not superhuman. We cannot turn around so soon as the war is over and begin flooding your home markets because of our cheaper labor, or compete with you in your foreign markets. How can we? We will first have the enormous task of rebuilding our old steel plants of reconverting our auto mobile, button, cloth, printing, and railroad shops, all now busy making munitions, back to their old uses. We will have to try to repair the vast material destruction that has come with the war. Then We will have to uO our DeSL to SdLlSly OuI oWh hoIaC markets. To do these things we will have to continue to buy of your, as we are now doing for war supplies. Good Roads Demanded. What chance is there for the American to do a steady business with us long after the war is over, to follow up and esta ablish himself in 1 the business now begun? I am not a ] But here is a fact to be considered ! by the American manufacturer So far as concerns France we iron and steel men had begun to do a surpris- ing business in the few years before the war. We were not only filling the demands made in this line on the home market, but we were beginning to go into the foreign trade. France had almost ceased to be an agricul- tural nation. I believe, too that our products were the most perfectly made, in the world. They were made to stand up, to wear. I won't say that we were right in manufacturing this way, that the American method is not the better; but our customers de- manded long wearing articles, and We satisfied their demands. An Ameri- can locom otive is built to last seven years, a condition the American must meet in future competition with us."
 American Cotton.
 In connection with the reconstruc- tion of the French factories destroyed in the North of France, referred to by MT. Pinot, current report indi- 1 cates increasing imports of cotton l from the United States and shows | that France is now using more | American cotton than ever before the 1 war. The totals for the first eight 1 months of this year of such imports l were six million metric quintals of l 100 kilos each. Before the war | France had 100000 cotton spindles l and 120,O00 looms. At the end of l 1914 but 25 per cent, or 800,000 were 1 in operation, due to the German in- vasion of the Vosges and Lille dis tricts. Now 40 per cent. or 3,000,00O ! spindles are in operation with 4,2O0,- ! 900 still idle.
 Need Railway Supplies.
 There is prospect for large orders CT American railway supplies being placed in France. The northern and 1 eastern railways suffered severely by the German invasion, and the other four large railway systems are badly in need of new material of all kinds. While the latter four railways have, during the present year, earned over 70 per cent. of their normal receipts both for freights and passengers, they delayed placing orders for new ma terial until this fall. So far Ameri- can car firms have taken orders for 10000 freight cars, March delivery. Other orders amounting to more than twenty million dollars were being rlaced by the French roads when the Palkan situation interfered with avail