The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-30
GETTING BUSINESS ABROAD

Tn the past, many of our industries
 never thought of doing business abroad
 They spent most of their time crying
 for protection at home.
 "A manufacturer in New England
 found his business greatly cut off after
 the war started. He had never had any
 export trade before. The necessity,
 however, forced him to get busy and
 he sold the Chinese government one
 order for nearly $1,000,000 worth of
 textile machinery. This order opened
 the eyes of that concern and now they
 are out after foreign business.
 q could recount similar examples by
 the hundreds where this condition had
 been brought about through the aid
 furnished the American manufacturers
 by the department of commerce. Our
 bureau of foreign and domestic com
 merce which has been built up and ex-
 tended to lend this aid to American business, is accomplishing wonders. One of our attaches had an interview With
 the King of Spain and succeeded in
 getting a tax of $1.25 per ton on Ameri-
 now going to Spain by the thousands
 of tons every week. It formerly came
 from England. These men of our de- partment are experts and. they are showing the American business man how to get foreign business and how to keep it after he gets 1t.
 Our department is also doing work along other lines. We have shown many American manufacturers how they can successfully and profitably make goods which we had previously always bought from Germany and other foreign coun- tries. We are showing many or them how to save fortunes which in the past lhave been thrown away in waste ma terials One manufacturer Of paraffin paper threw aways 12 carloads Of what he considered waste material. We showed him how he could get back the paraffin in this 12 cars of watse which was worth more than $10,000 and how he could untilize the paper which was worth thousands of dollars 1tself. me work of the department of commerce has been greatly extended since the war and it has played considerable part in making our manufacturers and business men realize the opportunities of foreign trade. and has rendered just as great service in preventing waste and in encouraging the manufacture of articles hitherto imported from Ger many and other nations.
 AFTER THE WAR
 Now, after the war is over, what are we going to do? In the first place we must follow the lead of Germany and give science the first place in in- dustry instead of the second, as we have in the past. There is no conflict between the scientific and the practi- cal in business. The scientific way is al ways the practical way. Germany is a comparatively poor country and she nas lacked our resources. but by the use of scientific methods. by giving science the first place in industry, she has forged ahead. Scientific methods have occupied a secondary place in this
 country in the past. but that condition | is rapidly changing. It will not be that way much longer. We are realizing the error of our way in the past.
 The American business men are be- ginning to realize that the first cost is not all They are looking into the future toward the ultimate goal of all indus I try. American business cannot be long CT operated by the rule of thumb and | it will not be after the war. Our old 1 jauntiness of spirit, the idea that be- cause we were Americans we were omnipotent in all lines of endeavor, has passed away. A new era is dawning in
 our country and the future of Ameri- i can trade and industry was never SC bright as at this time. We have secured
 vision"