New-York tribune., 1919-03-16
Business Men i'm Mid-Ocean
Talk Shoes and Sealing Wax
But 1t Was a Serious Discussion of Wavs and
Means of Expanding American Trade Which
Developed at Conven ton Held ON Board Liner
TIME good ship Lapland, Of the
White Star Line, holds the

TIME good ship Lapland, Of tn.
White Star Line, holds the
unique distinction of having car
ried as part of its cargo on a recent
westbound voyage across the Atlantic
real, if unscheduled, foreign trade
convention, international in its scope
1t was the first floating assemblage oi
the kind on record. 1t was regula,
convention, too, according to United
States Trade Commissioner Chauncey
Depew Snow at London, with chair
man as prominent as ever graced such
an occasion on terra frma
When the Lapland sailed from New
York on January 25 last she carried
on her list 400 frst-class passengers
most of whom we're prominent Ameri-
can business men and bankers In
Glued In the personnel were a forme r
Secretary Of Commerce and Labor of
the United States, Minister of Labor
from Australia, an official American
labor commission. There were also
manufacturers and exporters Of cotton
and woollen textiles, lumber, canned
goods, copper, iron and steel, railway
equipment, petroleum, sseds, leathef,
boots and shoes, shoe findings, tanning
materials, agricultural and other ma
chinery, and publishers, fife insurance
men, motion picture producers and sd-
vertisng men.
few days out of New York saw the
business men in various lines getting
together in informal groups and discuss
ing the pressing problems of the day.
Discussions finally reached such a
stage that somebody decided it was an
opportune time to hold a convention
on matters pertaining to foreign trade.
Mr.. Vanderlip Chosen
As Chairman
Accordingly, on January 80 when the
Lapland was reeling off the knots in
mid-Atlantlc, the convention was con-
vened in the salon of the ship. Frank
A. Vanderlip, president of the National
City Bank of New York, was escorted
to the chair by former Secretary of
Commerce and Labor Oscar Straus.
Mr.. Vanderlip remarked on scanning
the list of those who signed up to
participate in the convention that he
had been impressed by the predomi-
nance of exporters. lie pointed cut that
IN the United States there had bocn
tendency to regard foreign trade as
selling something abroad, as referring
only to exporting, and to overlook the
other end of our foreign commerce
importing He stressed the i'm
portance Of realizing that the EXPORT
half of foreign trade would never
permanently amount to much until the
import half is developed also. When
a debtor nation Americans could afford
to look at it differently, he said, but
the war has changed that situation.
and to-day as creditor nation with
billions owing to it the United States
in order to sell goods abroad must
take foreign goods in payment.
The opinion was expressed by the
chairman that the big party Of men
crossing to Europe on the ship was
the forerunner Of an endless number
of shiploads Of business men from
America. 1t was good thing for
the business men Of this country to go
to England, he said, to study what the
British government and the British
business men had worked out and were
thinking and doing.