Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1921-12-22

His knowledge of the need of an act.
i've and worldwide export trade is
based on Investigations carried on fol
years both as one of the leaders il
| the Wilson administration and as the
head of an organization whose life is
given to the furthering Of the move.
ment to place the United States il
the lead as the worlds greatest pro
ducing and export nation.
China once adopted a policy-anc
under it she crumbled to spineless
bulk that at one time threatened
death to her as a nation and her peo.
pie as a race.
Thousands of American citizens to-
day are asking why we do not adopt
similar policy, asking this question
even in the halls of legislation and
among the units of our commercial
/ life.
Is the United States sufficient unto
itself? Can it draw about it's shores
a Chinese wall that would exclude not
only immigration and the exchange OF
relationship but would wipe from the
seas the import and export trade and
turn inward all the powers and possi-
| bilities of her growth?
Dressed in glittering genera1ities,
bedecked in false conceptions of
progress, tricked out in brilliant but
empty phrases of a selfish patriotism
grounded on false logic, the campaign
has been carried on since the time
scores of years ago, when our unthink-
| ing citizens brought shame to true
Americans as they boastfully shouted
before a contemptuous Europe, A
merica can lick the world"
| Leaving the obvious fact that there
are many things we cannot produce
in the United States and that our ne
cessary purchases of these abroad can
be most conveniently covered by send
ing our goods in return, aside, are there
no cogent domestic reasons which
make foreign market for our prod
ucts a matter of necessity?
Three Great Staples
At least three great commodities
spring to our thought when this cues
tion is raised. These are cotton,
wheat and copper. We have never
consumed, nor can we consume, any,
thing like the quantities of these
which we produce. Shall we produce
less, therefore, or shall we sell the
surplus we always have in the only
available markets, which are the for
eign markets? The question answers
itself. 1t is, we at once see, vital to
the prosperity Of our agricultural and
mining interests that we have large
and steady foreign market for these
commodities. The home of every
farmer and miner is directly affected
by the conditions in our export trade.
This foreign commerce has neither
been large nor steady in recent
months and the result appears in
every copper mining town and on ev-
cry cotton plantation and wherever
wheat is grown. None are so foolish
as to say that an export market is
not essential to the prosperity of both
the capital and labor concerned in
the production of copper, cotton and
wheat.
But these three are in some degree
typical of others. We sell abroad
such commodities as lumber, oil and
steel, and each in different forms or
states of manufacture. Why are they
sold abroad? Is it not because there
is no sufficient market for them at
home? Is it not. therefore, also true
that the steady employment of labor,
the regular return of capital both
require that foreign market shall be
found for the products which they
jointly make, and that it is certain
that capital cannot continuously earn
and labor be continuously employed
unless such markets be found for any
surplus over the consuming capacity
of our own country?
Pre-War Markets
Leaving these major items, which
some might say were selected ones,
We find that before the war there had
been a steady growth in our export
sales of partly or fully finished manu-
factures until these had become the
largest elements in our outward for
eign business. Why was this so?
The foreign markets are not usually
those in which excessive prices can
be had, and therefore it is hardly true
that our manufacturers sold these
goods to the value of many hundreds
of millions of dollars yearly in other
lands in order to make a large profit
upon them than could be had at home.