Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-01-07
With Other Editors
In Connection With Export Trade.

to the question than shows the surface, for the
principles underlie export and domestic bust
ness-ths exchange of what make for what is
made by else.
When we buy pair of shoes exchange money,
received for labor and representing work we
have performed in producing product for them.
We do not confer any the shoedealer by the
transaction and the satisfactory and the
money is not counterfeit the exchange is mutually
satisfactory and both should be contented.
When we sell machine tools to a customer in this
country we simply exchange our labor embodied in
its production whether in design, manufacture or
sale) for the labor of someone else in other
line Eliminating the medium Of money, because it
is apt to confuse, we say that exchange a
milling machine for truck Both OF US get equal
value because we need the truck in business Of
building milling machines and the truck maker needs
the milling machine in the building of trucks
We make the exchange to aid each other in
further manufacture, and it is beneficial if have
been honest and displayed good judgment in select
ing the articles.
The same principles apply to export trade al
though we invariably overlook the exchange part Of
the transaction.
The only reason for foreign exchange, the same
with domestic exchange is that the parties desire
each others product more than their The shoe
maker exchanges part OF the shoes he makes to the
makers of hats, coats and trousers because he
only pair of shoes at time and because
shoes alone hardly make complete wardrobe for
our climate and ideas.
In order to sell machine tools abroad must
first find countries that need them than the
things they make raise Russia, for example,.
raises grain and cattle and also produces minerals
and OIL Whatever machinery she obtains from this
country must be~bought with the commodities she
produces in excess of her needs. And we must take
these commodities in exchange for machinery
else have someone else take them and trade US
for approximately equivalent amount.
The machine-tool builder has no direct use for
either grain cattle he must find some means Of
making the trade. This is done through the medium
of money or exchange. 1t is just as though some
large merchant firm such as Sears, Roebuck & Co.
did bartering or exchange business. Farmers
would send them wheat, corn fowls etc, and
a credit slip. Machine-tool and other machinery
builders might do the Each could take the
credit slips and purchase any article from any de-
sired department But each case it is evident that
our products would not be wanted unless there
was demand enough from the other producers to
keep them moving
Both quantity and price must be considered. II
there were demand for only one hundred milling
machines year it would be useless to build two
hundred If the hundred a year could be ex-
changed for enough food and clothes and other things
to live for year the surplus time could be utilized
in some other way-in cultivating garden or help
ing out in some line that in need of work
ers-perhaps in devising ways on which the
milling machine might be useful and so increasing
the demand for it.
To continue the illustration of the primitive
mode OF exchange let consider the world as con-
sisng of two islands, each inhabited by one family
If each island produces all it's family requires there
would be need for trade between them If how
island raises bananas and the other peanuts
exchange may be advantageous to both But the only
exchange would be the surplus of each the seeds
of the family requirements. and if one boatload OF
bananas would obtain all the peanuts the family de-
boatload of bananas Contrariwise should the pea
nut growers insist sending two boatoads of pea
nuts and getting two loads of bananas, they would
be laying the foundation inter-isIand strife
which is one of the dangers Of all export business
The great need of the world for years to come will
be production Of all sorts to up for the terrible
that has been carried on for the past
four years The product of labor on the natural re-
sources is the only OF wealth, and we must |
all work the harder, the result Of the great war
to bring the real wealth back to normal Because |
of this we must avoid all things which might lead
to trade differences with other countries and reme
Der that whatever we export is much of our labor
and resources gone to another country and that UNI
less it brings at least equivalent in the things
we need we are losers instead Of gamers. Gold is
a poor substitute for meat and drtnk-4t Is only a
yardstick with which to measure values
The expert question requires careful thinking
from many angles It is not a one-sidea hronosftj,,