The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06
SHIPBUHDING INDUSTRY

"A great industry which should be established at Mobile and in which Bir- mingham should be interested is the shipbuilding industry. The great stretches of the Mobile river. so close the gulf offer vast possibilities for locating many plants there and Bir- mingham offers the best and nearest sources of the raw material. Not only that but the majority of small and large machinery, fittings, etc, which go into ship could be economically man ufactured right here in Birmingham
 and the ships could be turned out in | their entirety right here in the state of Alabama.
 'I am sorry I have not had the op- portunity of talking to the business men of Birmingham as a body. I am afraid the subject of foreign trade is hardly yet one of enough importance in their eyes I should like to have had the opportunity of explaining to them how foreign trade is a question of national existence to the United States. When, soon after the outbreak of war in the fall of 1914, our foreign com merce stopped abrutly, we who were thousands of miles away from the scene of war and who prided ourselves on our economic independence found ourselves woefully dependent. Our financial ar engagements were totally disarranged, our stock exchanges had to close, we found were dependent on foreign raw material, on foreign ships, pn foreign salesmen, in fact we were prac- tically dependent on foreign aid to carry on our commerce. Much of this has now been remedied or is being slowly remedied and it is the desire and
 the function of the United States de-
 partment of commerce, through it's bu-
 reau of foreign and domestic commerce, to do all it can to help the American manufacturer to be independent of for eign material, of foreign shipping and
 of foreign salesmen.
 "A vast education is being under taken by the department of --'-'0"on , information is being gathered from every part of the world and distributed free to every American manufacturer that asks for it. The federal govern ment is anxious to cooperate with the
 commercial organizations and the rail- ways of the country in disseminating all this information. I should like the Fbusness men of Birmingham to make more use of our district office at At lanta whence all the information gath cred by the head office at Washington is being distributed W. L. Fairbanks, United States commercial agent in charge at Atlanta, will be only too glad to reply to any queries addressed to him by Birmingham business men and to answer questions referring to facil- ities for selling American goods abroad, foreign tariffs, consular regulations and foreign trademark laws
 | T hope that the people of Birming- ham will accept and make use of what l have come here to offer to them | the wholehearted co-operat tion of the | Federal government in any way that 1 will tend to the increased prosperity not
 only of Birmingham. of Alabama, but of the south in general.
 l This is my first visit to the south, and I am delighted with it and with | the people I have met since coming g 1 here. I have had the privilege of en- | loving the world famed southern hos
 ptality and l assure you that I shall
 go north with regret and shall always
 look forward to the privilege of again visiting this part of the coutnry."