Evening star., 1920-02-21
PROTEST CUTTING
Of FOREIGN TRADE
EXPANSION FUND
Business Interests Aroused
Over Meager Appropria-
ton of $487, 900.
by WILL y. KENNEDY.

BY WILL y. KENNEDY.
Business interests of the country,
through the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States, and especially the
export organizations are massinG
their forces in protest against the
body blow at American foreign trade
development through the slashing of
! appropriations for the bureau of for
! eign and domestic commerce in the
, Legislative, executive and judicial APP
preparatory bill now under considera-
tion in the House.
Where the bureau this year has
$4,000 the present bill carries but
$iS1,0G0 for the fiscal year starting
July l. Where the appropriation for
promoting trade this year is $1,000
in the bill now being debated in the
! House there is but $175,00o for SINH
! lar promotion. The worst blow of all
! came when the appropriation for com
mercial attaches. which is now S165.-
| 600 and for which 100000 was asked.
was wiped entirely off the slate. For
far eastern trade promotion the 1920
appropria ton is 100000, and in 1921
| the bill is cut to $4,000.
| Members of Congress. and especially
the members of the House appropria-
| tions committed are being besieged
by delegations from important trade
organizations today. For the last two
days, since the manufacturers, eX-
porters. shipping interests and organ
lied business generally has learned of
the drastic cut for trade promotion
made in the committee. long distance
telephone messages and kilograms
have been deluging members of the
committee and the leaders on both
| sides of the House.
Meetings of Protest.
Mass meetings of protest have been
VI,
New Orleans, San Francisco, St. Louis,
! Seattle. Cleveland, Philadelphia and
| other large cities which are great CEN
! ters for trade. From some of these
mass meetings delegations have been
sent to Washington to make vigorous.
| personal appeals direct to the mem
! berS of Congress
/ Among the first business mass
meetings held on the subject were
those in New York under the auspices
of the American Manufacturers EX-
! port Association. of the Merchants
Association of New York and the Ma
tional Manufacturers Asso ociation, and
! in Boston by the Boston Chamber of
Commerce.. All of these have sent
| strong delegations to Washington to
make an appeal direct to Congress.
! 1t develops that the subcommittee
| recommendations making these vio-
/ lent cuts in the trade development
appropriations were accepted by the
| full appropriations committee by a
/ single vote, and that there is a strong
feeling even in the committee against
| cutting this service to the quick just
| at time when the business Drgani-
! cations feel that it is most needed.
Representative Joseph w. Byrns.
| democrat. of Tennessee, is preparing
to make a fight on the floor of the
promotion service. Representatives
Thomas U. Sisson of Mississippi and
James p. Buchanan of Texas will also
make speeches. A number of promi-
nent republicans have promised to CO.
| operate.
Effect on Foreign Trade.
| Representative Byrns and those who
| will make the fight with him contend
| that withdrawal of all support for the
! commercial attaches and other serious
! urtailment mean the dismantling of
! the most essential part of the Ameri-
| can foreign trade promotion ma
| chinery at the very moment that Eng
! land. Japan, Germany and France are
| making herculean efforts to increase
| the volume of their export business.
Both England and France, they point
out. have just reorganized their for
| eign commercial service on a larger
scale than ever before. Other coun-
tries are planning to do likewise.
| Those who are most interested in
l L
this is no time for the United States
to throw into the discard the entire
| commercial attache service, almost all
| of the trade commissioners abroad
| and the existing district and CO.
| operative offices of the bureau Of for
! eign and domestic commerce in fifteen
large American cities. An avalanche
| of kilograms and letters demanding
continuance of these offices are being
/ received by the members from these
| districts. The members of Congress
| are being held directly responsible
! for the blow at business by the busi-
| ness leaders in the principal cities
| they represent.
! When these congressman sought in
formation today from the officials of
! the Commerce Department it was eX-
| plained to them that it has taken
years to develop these trade promo
| tion services to their present state OF
efficiency. The expenditure of money
/ necessary to build up and maintain
the field work of the Department of
! Commerce abroad and at home has
| been amply justified, according to the
! Testimony of representatives of Amer
| lean business firms who have come to
| Washington during the last two days
20 protest to Congress.
Effect of Drastic Cut.
Summary of what the drastic cut in
appropriations means to the foreign
trade service was given today at a
| conference with New YORK and New
/ England members. Twelve CONNER
cal attaches-men trained and ex-
perienced in commercial and economic
matters-who are at present attached
/ to emba ssies and legations in a dozen
important foreign capitals. where
! they are charged specifically and
I wholly with the promotion of Amer
lean business interests at this criti-
] cal period in the worlds history. must
be withdrawn peremptorily within
! three months time. At least fifteen
! trade commissioners who are report
ing on rapidly changing commercial
conditions in European countries
from Denmark to Austria will have
to be recalled by May /.
/ A deliberate sacrificing of the finest
foreign trade promotion machinery
any country has even built up-one
which half dozen of Americas
keenest competitors have sought to
use as a models forcefully resented
by Representative Byrns and others
on the appropriations committee.
Careful reading of the hearings on
this bill show no intimation to any
officials of the Department of Com
merce that any such drastic action
was contemplated. The spending of
several hundred thousand dollars a
year on constructive export trade pro-