Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-05-04
HASKIN LETTER
THE WORLDS GOOD WILL.
BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN

in that period. In 1914 exports to those
places were valued at $197 100000, while
in 1913 the figures jumped to $582, ,000,-
600.
1t is to keep the jump obtained during
the war, while our chief European COM
petltors were too busily engaged meeting
war demands to pay much attention to
the development Of commerce, that Is the
aim Of the department of commerce. One
OF the first steps taken by the depart
ment In the matter of permanent trade
development is the making OF CONNER
clal survey Of Europe as the war left it.
obtained from President Wilson's emer-
gency fund for this purpose. This is
considered very important undertaking,
as conditions, after five years of war,
have materially changed the trade situa-
ton abroad. At this time, Europe is al
most virgin territory in the trade field.
Before the ware it was our largest buyer,
absorbing about three-ffths of our total
exports. England was our largest single
customer, with Germany second and
France and Russia next In line.
The commercial survey is being made
by trade commissions that have been sent
to London, Paris, Rome, Athens and
practically all the other important cities
of the allied and neutral countries.
Eventually commissions will go into Ger
many, Russia and Austria, where there
will be a tremendous demand for all kinds
of raw materials and finished products
as seen as peace is signed. These COM
missions viii study and investigate trade
conditions and report their findings to
the department. Future plans Of the de-
partment for trade expansion will be
based upon the recommendations and
give af haa isr
To continue this work not only in Eu-
rope, but all over the world, the depart
merit has been allowed an appropriation
Of million dollars for the coming year
This amount will provide enough money
for doubling the present force of iares-
tigators and the sending of commissions
to South America, Australia and the
orient
In addition to these special commits
sions, the department has commercial
Iattaches in number of the principal cap
itals of the world, who supply first-hand
information of trade conditions in their
seminates this information to exporters
and manufacturers tru it's daily reports,
publications and interviews. The regular
use by business houses Of this service Il
urged by department officials.
One Of our chief handicapg in foreign
trade before the war was the lack OF
properly trained commercial agents.
There has been lot of talk in the past
about urging our leading educational in.
stitutions to introduce into the school
curriculum courses for the training Of
young men in foreign trade methods, bur
very little was done in that direction.
Now the federal board of vocational
education has arranged TO have foreign
trade courses introduced into some Of the
leading universities and colleges thruout
the country. This governmental agency
has actually gone ahead and published
modern and practical text books ii for
eign trade subjects, such as export meth
DDS and documentary technique. These
are being turned out by the printer III
time for spring and summer classes.
A foreign trade course has already
been adopted by the City college. New
York. the New York university aad
Georgetown university, Washington d.
c. Georgetown university started with
Il class Of 80 young men, having turned
away twice that number More than two
hundred have made application for adj
mission to the next class. Other SCHOOLS
planning courses in corporation with the
department are the University of Oregon,
Tulane university, New Orleans. and the
University Of California.
In this respect the United States Is
meeting the efforts Of its two chief com
petitors in the trade world, England and
Germany Each of these two countries
has for many years been educating young
men for foreign trade. Especially Is
this true of Germany, whose trained
commercial agents were in every nook
and corner of the globe prior 10 the out
break of the war.
The two other things that retarded
Americans in foreign markets before the
war were the lack of credit facilities in
foreign countries and the iuadequacy Of
our merchant marine. Now the large
banking institutions Of the country are
rapidly establishing branch banks In
South America. the far east and Europe.
There Is hardly an important city II
South America where there is not Il
branch Of some American banking insti-
tuition. The National City Bank Of New
York Is a leader in the movement These
branch hanks furnish the necessary finan-
cial facilities which formerly had to be
arranged thru foreign banks, and they
also furnish credit ratings on business
men IN their respective communities.
The merchant marine problem Is gen
crafty regarded as solved by the tremend-
Gus tonnage that has been constructed
by the United States shipping board III
course, many of the ships built during
the stress Of war times will not be suit
able for cargo purposes in normal tines
and fer chat reason the shipping board
sefnn fsrna piarycl -,