Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-12-21
UNITED STATES TO
HAVE ADVANTAGE
Secretary of Commerce Redfield
Talks of After the War

secretary OF Commerce, Redfield
Talks of After the War
Norfolk, Va, Dec. 14.-The JTnitad
States will enter competition for tho
world trade after the war with every
advantage. said Secretary of Com
merse Redtield. l..speaking last NIGHT
before the Southern Commercial con-
gress.
There is the best reason for know.
ing that IN at least four important
respects the end of the war will mean
callson us for supplies which are now
prevented from'furnishing !" said Mr..
hedheld. "These demands will be
for foodstuffs of many kinds. for
agricultural machinery. for lumbar
in many forms and for credits in the
way OF loans snd investments.
Americas advantage will lie."
said the secretary, s'in the fact that
her adjustments from war to ne.ca
conditions. will not be SO severe as in
the fighting countries.
1t is reasonable to snnnoso tho.
foreign industries as a whole will
nave to make sharper readiust-
ment of product from war foods -
peace goods than is to be the casa
with us. Consider what a manufac-
ourer IN one Of the Central Powers
would face IL he undertook to maka
up goods for stock today on anv con-
siderable scale for an export market
nc would manufacture at high rates
uhder war conditions, with higher
than normal costs, with some of hia
trained supervising and working
stan IN the armies, and with every
material enhanced in price, perhaps
with some supply cut off.
This man must pile up goods 40
MADE at a time when credit is costly
and taxes are advancing for a sale at
a future time which may be distant
ana In markets whose current nova
mehts ne may not know and of whose
future conditions no one can tell
MIN. he may not be able to sav
whether styles, designs, colors and
dimensions and other elements of the
goods he makes will suit when the
unknown day shall arrive when he
can o1fer them for sale. Nor will he
know whether in the interval 1ndns-
tries shall not have sprung up in the
place where he would sell. that will
make the vending of his nrodnct
there impossible.
For manufacturer under condi-
lions or this kind to pile up goods
would be almost an act of indnstrial
insanity and certainly not one whose
existence Oh any considerable scale
should be thought a dangerous
threat"
Economic alliances are formed
not as offensive weapons but as a
defense.
These movements can not be look.
ed upon as if they were weapons.
backed by exceptional economic pow-
er. On the contrary saner view is
to regard them as weapons forged to
overcome unusual economic weak
ness. 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 deter
mine our place in the world, !" he con-
concluded. IF we will waste we
cannot win. If we condemn the
sclentlhc by boastful adhesion to
the so-called practical-which often
means the ignorant we can not win
either. If we pit unframed minds
ana hands against those which have
been skillfully taught we cannot win.
Ii we persist in ignoring what it costs
" 40 business we cannot expect to
cope with those who are more intelli-
gent. We cannot haye our place in
the sun unless we deserve it.
'lf l were asked the NJ essage which
at the end of thirty years connection
with industry | would leave as
warning against danger, the sign
post for the future, it would be:
Educate young people for the work
OF the field; make industry the SER
want OF science; know costs and the
causes of costs; stop wasting"