Albuquerque morning journal., 1916-12-13
UNITED STATES
To C0MPE TE FOR
TRADE Of WORLD.
Secretary RedfieId Tells South
ern Commercial Congress
That This Country viii Have
Every Advantage After War

10y MORNING JOURNAL SPECIAL LEASED msFl
Norfolk, Va, Dec, 13.-The United
States will enter competition for the
world trade after the war with every
advantage, said Secretary Of Com
merce Redfield, speaking today be-
fore the Southern Commercial Con-
gress.
There is the best reason for know
ing that in at least four important re-
spects the end of the war will mean
calls on us for supplies which now
we are prevented from furnishing" "
said Mr.. Redfleld These demands
will be for foodstuffs Of many kinds,
for agricultural machinery, for um-
Der in many forms and for credits in
the way Of loans and investments"
Americas advantage will lie, said
the secretary, in the fact that her adj
iusments from war to peace condi-
tions will not be SO severe as in the
fighting countries
Sharp Readjustmcnt.
ut is reasonable to suppose that
foreign Industries as a WHOLE he said,
will have to make a sharper read
Iustment of product from war goods
TO peace goods than is to be the case
with us, Consider what a manufac-
turcr in one Of the central powers
would face II he undertook to make
up goods for stock today on any con-
siderable scale for an export market.
IIa fpnuId p,anuf,,fuVo .t Lfyb ra tpg
under war conditions with higher
than normal costs, with some Of his
trained supervising and working staff
In the armies, and with every material
enhanced in price, perhaps with some
supply cut Off.
This man must pile up goods so
made at a time when credit is costly
and taxes arc advancing for a sale at
a future time which may be distant
and in markets whose current move
ments he may not know ana Of whose
future conditions no one can tell him.
lie may not be able TO say whether
styles, designs, colors ana dimensions
and other elements of the goods he
makes will suit when the unknown
day shall arrive when he can offer
them for sale Nor will he know
whether in the interval industries
shall not have sprung up in the place
where he would sell, that will make
the vending of his product there Inn
possible.
For a manufacturer under condi-
tons OF this kind to pile up goods
would be almost an act of Industrial
insanity and certainly not one whose
existence on any considerable scale
should be thought a dangerous
threat"
Alliances for Defense.
Economic alliances are formed, the
secretary declared, not as offensive
weapons, but as n defense.
These movements cannot be looked
upon as if they were weapons backed
by exceptional economic power on
the contrary, a saner view is to regard
them as weapons forged to overcome
unusual economic weakness. They are
not the outcome of developing
strength but Of increasing loss. They
are created to make the best of a
bad situation.
Economic alliances may come
and go; tariff policies may change;
but greater things than either will de-
termne our place in the world" he
concluded. III we will waste we can
not win, If we condemn the scientific
by a boas,fGi adhesion 10 the So
called practical which often means
the ignorant-we cannot win either
If we pit unframed minds and hands
against those which have been skill
fully taught we cannot win If we
persist In ignoring what 1t costs to do
business, we cannot expect to cope
with those who are more intelligent.
We cannot have our place in the sun
unless we deserve it.
"s | were asked the message which
At the end of thirty years connection
With industry | would leave as
warning against danger, the sign
post for the future path, 1t would be
Educate young people for the work
IF the field, make industry the servant
'f science; know costs and the causes
1f COSTS stop wasting"