New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-22

there-the modern cities. filed with or
binary people who live exactly as We do
the big department stores, the subways,
the fashionable seaside resorts, the golf
and club life. There are still wild and
barbarous places in the world and COM
merce is still full Of the old romance
that ought to lure our boys TO run
away to sea-" as they once did here az
we'll as in England. 1t would benefit
both boys and national trade. But the
romance ought to be properly located.
People generally should have better
understanding of the motive forces un-
DERIVING international trade. They
would appreciate the seriousness OF
having this country's international re-
lationshps properly adjusted il they
understood how absolutely necessary to
modern manufacture is the ability to
obtain by importation hundreds OF
essential materials used with our own
raw materials. They should know that
! modern industry requires nations that
produce raw materials of their own to
| import those very materials in grades
/ not produced at home in order to OBJ
tain blends that are essential. 1t is
probable that tariff changes after the
war may make it Of utmost Importance
to this country that an accurate knowl-
! edge of present sources Of supply and
also the whereabouts of undeveloped
resources in raw materials should be
had as the basis Of diplomatic negotia-
( ton.
A Simple Trade Story
II all Americans knew the simple
story of the world movement OF the
great commodities like cotton and
grain we would be saved from the fire.
quent nation wide spasms of futile and
mistaken virtue that often cost US in
terms of real prosperity. The specula-
ton in cotton and grain contracts COW
ering fictitious bales and bushels on the
exchanges of the world, including our
own, seems to people not in close
touch with real business contrary to
solid business morality, but only a
smattering of the knowledge of inter-
national commerce tells of its abso-
lutely essential service as the motive
power that keeps the world-movement
going. 1t serves in the way Of focus
ing all the factors Of the worlds sup
NV and demand in a process OF really
scientific price-fxing, and on this de-
pendable price international banking
furnishes the credits and the funds
upon the assurance Of which cotton
and grain are continually in motion
from producer in this country to con-
sumner abroad without any hesitation
as to definite final disposal. The spec
ulative machinery furnishes immense
sums of floating capital for commerce.
II enables the manufacturing industry
to work within narrow margins of un-
certainty as to costs and profits. II
our great commodity markets were for
hidden. strong as they are in the inter-
national situation, our planters and
farmers would be at the mercy Of for
eign combinations.
We are to-day asking for merchant
marine, and our nope is in standardized
construction. Yet, fourteen years ago,
a wave Of national disapproval OF what
was called over-captslization caused
the financial shipwreck of an enter
prise the very core of which was to be
the construction of standardized ships.
At that very time England was in the
beginning of a much more fragrant
boom of public speculation in the
shares of rubber plantations in the Far
East, in which was laid the foundation
of England's present solid control Of
the worlds supply of rubber, an inval-
liable military as we'll as economic as
set to her just now.
Handicaps of Legislation
A carefully conducted inquiry into
one phase of international commerce
last year by the Federal Trade Com
mission served to establish the fact
that American manufacturers trying
to sell in foreign markets are handi-
capped, and American producers of
raw materials not having established
speculative markets here are mulcted
by foreign combinations of buyers, all
because our antitrust law was made
without a thought of international
trade. Legislation to remedy this. the
Webb bill, is now before Congress
and deserves support. The three thick
volumes of Congressional discussion Of
antitrust bills published by the gov
eminent contain hardly a sentence
about international trade. There has
never been any American provincialism
more dense than the provincialism Of
certain periods Of our statecraft.
The uncertainty about the political
and economic situation in international
affairs when. peace comes is the very
reason why we need an intelligent
grasp of the facts of business inter
course between nations. To-day we
think OF intense feeling between the
nations of Europe, that will persist in
exclusion of each others commerce
-