Arizona republican., 1917-12-14
WOULD MAKE MOST
 OF OPPORTUNITIES FUR WORLD TRADE
Republican A. p. Leased Wire1


 trade opportunities are foremost in Secretary Redfield's report of the many activities of the department of com merce presented today to congress. The department probably conducts more different phases of government work than any other, and while all are touched upon in the long report, measures fCf promoting foreign trade and an account of the years cOmmer- cial operations stand at the top of the list.
 The visible balance of trade in favor of the United States on merchandise transactions for the fiscal year end ing June 30, 1917, was s3.6344 450 905. says the report. The total of our merchandise export trade was s6293,- SO6,0OO and of our import trade, s2.659. 355,1S5. During the three months period from the close of the fiscal year to October l. the merchandise exports have been s1,31s,21S,625. The imports, $729,97S,017, and the net vis- ible balance, s589, ,235,60S
 The Department earnestly hopes for the passage early in the coming season of the so-called Webb bill. now pending in the senate. This measure will have an important bearing in pro- noting our foreign commerce. It will [ in our foreign trade and will give con- l fidence to many a manufacturer and merchant to undertake foreign business 1 from which now, for lack of the auth | ority this measure will give. he feels give is thereby diminished also. There l himself excluded.
 This country now holds the great est reserve of gold the world has ever | seen. It is a great economic prize. On 1 It. as secure base. rests our national. ! state, municipal. corporate and private credits. Let it be seriously diminished and the volume of credits that we can are but few ways in which this re- serve, based on which our credits de- pend. can be adequately protected from economic attack. Among these meth ods are loans abroad, investments abroad, sales abroad, services abroad By one or another of these methods or by combinations of them we can keep the current of exchange so flow ing that our gold reserve may resist l serious diminution. In so doing we 1 conserve our power to give credit which is to say our power to do busi- 1 ness on large scale. This means em- ployment, activity, occupation. We are becoming accustomed to loans abroad. We are beginning, but as yet only be- q on any considerable scale. We are not yet rendering services abroad on a large scale, such as insurance or trans portation.
 We must hold as fully as we can the volume of our foreign commerce intact. If We fail to take these eco homie movements at their true value. the result will be upon our own heads and we shall only nave ourselves to blame. We may, indeed, continue as a going concern, but we can not hold place of financial and industrial and commercial power in the world unless we keep the credit giving power. This situation is comparatively new tC Amerlcans:lt has come upon us sud l denly; it has risen out of the shock or war. It is the more necessary there fore to make it plain that if we would : prosper to the full we can no Ionge, ' think the thoughts of former days ol l relative isolation. We are in the fam. : lily or financial and commercial world 2 and If We would keep our place anC
 influence therein We must play our du, s part as one of the family.
 t The establishment of free ports a = strategic points on our coast would b, h a potent factor in maintaining an, e extending our foreign trade. Properl,
 paced, constructed, equipped. organ a l2ed and oper9.ed. they would ada { n the employment of labor and to the re y turns of capital. By industries ant o warehouses located in the free DOT
 areas, the cost of duty on material
 used Tn the manufacture of article
 exported from those ports would be re q duced, the cost of carriage might b 2 substantially eliminated, the expens 5. or railway transportation could b e lessened. The opportunity for use O e our inland waterways could be i'm # proved and goods could thus be mann O 1actured for export on the water iron e m such way as to save much expens, q Any who may fear that there will h e uilIlculty In readjustlng our costs t
 meet foreign competition after the wa = should become advocates of free port |. because through the estabulishment C mdustrles In such ports it will be DOS
 slDle to save economic wastes whic n Welgn heavily against us but whic
 under our present system are unavoid \ able. The processes of manufactuI
 ing for export would be greatly simp
 lifted when they involved the use (
 foreign dutiable materials and the pro
 cedure under the customs law coul
 be made more easy nov only withor
 risk of losing revenue, but with DOS
 sible gain to the taxable values ( \ the country.
 Testimony offered by America
 business men at home and abroad an
 by our diplomatic representatives give
 assurance that the commercial attach
 service is amply fulfilling it's mission The results attained during tn
 three years since the commercial at II tache service was established call fc | US extension. At present certain lare
 and important markets for America
 products are scantily covered Som
 sections are not covered at all Durin | the last year. urgent requests for tn | establishment of the new commerci; | attache posts have been received frol
 r-ambassadorst to Italy. Japan, Spail
 and Mexico, and from the consul gen \ eral at Calcutta, India, the reoue,
 from Japan having already been ac | ceded to. In addition. we should hay | these representatives in Central Amer | ica, South Africa, the East Indie | Venezuela, Colombia and the West Inc | ies, and, when events shall permit, | Scandinavia. and the eastern Meditel | ranean. Otherwise. our touch with u | economic conditions now in process , | worldwide readjustment will be il
 adequate for our national needs. American business men who ha, | come in contact with the commerc
 attaches in the course of their trave
 express their high valuation of the a.
 sstance given by the attaches. Nam
 lecturers and exporters have be-
 unanimous in expressing their grat
 tude of the benefit derived by the T. | ports and the other advices throus
 this service. The work done by u
 commercial attache is distinctive:
 does not involve duplication of wol performed abroad by the consular ser ice or by our own travelling agents