Evening star., 1915-01-31

ironies in our business life II was the
lack of cooperation between COM
merce and the Department of Com
merce. A vast and useful machine had
/ foster trade at home and develop it
abroad. Yet trade regarded it with
suspicion and looked upon the waste
basket as the proper depository for
most of its products.
Another Deadly Parallel
Once more the deadly parallel. this
time with the Department of Agricul-
ture. At first rejected, despised, even
abused by the clodhopper it has, with
intelligent cooperation on the part of
the farmer. created a new land, a new
farmer and new wealth. It's varied
bureaus have made the desert bloom
the crops rotate and multiply, and in
vested the farm and farm life with a
lure and, what is more important, with
a larger profit.
Yet for every beneficent bureau in
the Department of Agriculture adding
dollars to the farmers bank account
there is mate in the Department of
Commerce that could do the same serv-
ice for business.
Why not make the Department of
Commerce as useful to the average
business man the Department of
Agriculture is to the everyday farm
err asked the chamber
The first thing was to establish close
and friendly relations with the de-
partmenf. Just as was done with Con-
gress. secretary RedfieId welcomed
the cooperation. Even before the
great war sJmote civilization. the cham
per. realizing that it was one of the
hopes of our commercial tomorrow,
brought about complete reorganiza-
ton of the bureau of foreign and do
mestic commerce. which is under the
wing of the Department of Commerce.
IL meant Increased appropriations, the
divorce of commercial agents from
politics: the use of the cable by CON
sular agents everywhere to flash home
the news of trade opportunities, so
they could be realized on at once
Under the old order they were printed
i'll dull pamphlets and reached the mer-
chant and the manufacturer long after
the opportunity has ceased.
Result of Vitalization.
One direct result of this vitalization
is the publication of daily newspa-
per by the Department of Commerce
called Commerce Reports Its re-
porters are our 300 consuls and the
scores of export trade agents scattered
the world over. Here is an up-to-the
minute business guide for the alert
millionaire steel masnate of Pitts
bnrgh and small necktie maker on the
! East Side in New York.
Immensely valuable as was this Coop
GRAFTON in peace. infinitely more so was it
upsetting credit. changing the whole
face of the trade map and giving the
United States a new business destiny.
1t was no time for speculation. A
huge oversee trade lay PROSTATE: IT
was for US to raise it up. What tie
American business man who wanted
to enter the foreign field needed more
than anything else was the accurate
facts that would enable him to culti-
vate it. Team work with the govern
! ment was absolutely essential to sue
cess. Thanks to the foresight of the
chamber this ling was available and
geared up to swift action.
If William Brown. anywhere. want
; ed to get busy in those foreign fields
vacated by Germany and Austria, the
chamber had all the data about them
available. 1t could tell him about
steamship lines, tariff regulations pass
port privileges-all that the business
| campaign needed. 1t did everything
but get the business.
Formula for Conquest.
! Nor was it all cold data In the
| stream of information that poured out
to commercial body. in town and city
and through that body to the big and
little merchant and manufacturer. was
the formula for the real conquest OF
| foreign trade-the one that Germany
| impressed upon her militant export
crusaders. 1t showed that by circulars
and sporadic statesmen you can never
achieve the permanent result. To ex-
port goods and keep on exporting them
| at profit you must first export men
| and keep them where the goods are
| bought and consumed.
| With its Individual members the
| chamber got down to the brass tacks
| in trade opportunities growing out OF
| the war. Take the concrete case OF
| Henry Smith of Boston, who exports
brushes and brooms to France and inn
ports the raw fibre from China and
Japan. A complete map of his >busi-
ness needs and resources is on a card
which forms part of a Who's Who OF