The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-01-12

ing the earth with pointed stick, still
cultivating with the spade, sowing
seed by hand. reaping by sickle,
threshing the grain by the fail. tread
ing under bore feet the grapes in
tended for wine. still making shoes
and clothes by hand, still considering
the sewing machine as a new tangled
innovation.
Hands No Match for Machines.
And it Is In just such parts that the
German export trade had its sweeping
success. And no wonder, for hand
labor, however cheap, Is no match for
the modern machine.
But was not Germany obliged to
meet American and British COMPETE
ton In the markets Of those countries
Yes. but only to n very limited extent.
for English speaking countries pre-
fer, rs "A rule. to do business with
English speaking people. thus, sub
stantially, leaving the larger world
field open to the Germans. The great
er part OF the world is of the conserv-
alive, static order: hence the reluc-
lance to take kindly TO things it is
not accustomed to. 1t therefore re-
quires much patience and no little In
. genuity to build up a market in these
| fields.
From time to time the American and
the British commercial travellers
appear on the scene, exhibit their
samples, and In the usual businesslike
way call for orders. The German
trader on the ground IS not discon-
certed a bit. for he knows by expert
ence that these travellers will receive
no orders. The German is master OF
the situation. He knows how TO curry
! favor, how to knuCkle down, how to
| cave in. In fact he Is protean and eel
like In his suavity master of the art
OF ingratiating himself with n Gus
| toner. And for all these reasons the
German merchant Is able to build up
the said markets and. substantially,
hold them all to himself.
Field Is Almost Unlimited.
Now. as for the field it Is surprls-
ingly great in extent and almost I'M
limited in It's possible volume Of trade.
| In the words of the miner the pay
dirt is rich and there is lots and lots
of it in sight, all ready for the pick,
the drill and the aInalgam pan.
Take the Mediterranean basin alone {;
draw a line from Gibraltar to Syria.
and the countries north, south and
east of that line embrace a population
several times that OF the United
States. And the Mediterranean basin
is but one OF these possible zones FOR
foreign trade.
Similar zones could be formed in the
Baltic region for northern Europe. in
Russia, in Siberia in Central America,
| in the northern part OF South Amer
lea and in the southern part of South
America, &c.
There IS no reason that I know Of
why the shoes, the clothes. the house
| hold utensils, the thousand and one
articles Of current domestic use turned
out by modern machinery should not
! in the regions indicated take the place
Of handmade products. There Is nc
reason that / know of why American
| capital. American genius and Ameri-
can expert direction should not take
a hand in bringing this about
How Is that" interrogates the
critic. what about the obstacles:
What need for Americans to hunt uT
a field in which it is necessary t.
curry favor. TO knuckle down, TO cave
ino"
The answer Is that there is way
of handling this foreign trade which
offers no such objections. a way. too
which would be likely to bring thu
maximum result with the minimum
effort. Let the people in the country
which elects to he the industrial anC
commercial base for a given trad'
zone build up and operate manufac
turing plants for the purpose of pro
ducing and distributing tho products