Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-21
WORLD KNOWLEDGE COMES
WITH A is CLAIM
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1S.-One in
cidentaI contribution which n
amazing increase in our foreign
trade is making to our national lie
and thought is that it is helping
America to know and understand h
rest of the world. With the greatest
| reluctance, but nevertheless swiftly
| and inevitably, America is growing
out of her traditional policy of isola-
ton. This progress seems to be
along the path of destiny. In the at
tempt to cling to the old order the
\ people turned their backs upon po-
litical association with other nations,
/ but nevertheless association in
| fact with these nations continually
| grows more intimate.
Ten years ago a nan as great as
| ~Clemenceau, coming as a visitor
from a foreign land, would have
| been only a name to all but the cru
dite few who followed international
| affairs. Today the Clemenceaus,
the Lloyd Georges. and the Venice
loses of the earth are almost as we'll
| known to Americans as u W
statesmen. Political debate even has
become international. Clemenceau
| makes a speech in New York; he is
answered by Borah in Washington;
! Nitti in Rome adds his rejoinder!
Pertinax, the Partisan Journalist,
comments; and so 1t goes. The world
has grown very small; we have be-
come merely the largest of a group
of jostling ~neighbors.
In this awakening there is no
more potent factor than our expand
ing trade with other nations. The
| - iG hound IN come 10
understand his market; he cannot
| sell his product intelligently unless
he does. Nor is foreign trade >ntire-
ly a matter of merchandise and bills
OF lading. Trade also includes h
investing of money. Americans are
now buying heavily of the securities
of the whole world. When an in
dividual investor in Shelbina, Mo-, is
informed by his local bank that h
National City Bank of New York
recommends Sac Paulo bonds as a
good buy, the investor naturally
wants to find out something about
the city of Sac Paulo. And natural
ly he goes ahead and finds out about
it.
In this work of educating the
American public as to economic con-
ditions in other countries, the Bu-
CeaU OIL Il OIblSu anu oOiiiCoIAN SONA
merce takes the leading part. Its
agents cover the whole economically
important part of the earth. The
business information they gather IS
lauthentic and complete. 1t is so
complete that at least two large Or
ganizations-the National City Com
pany and the association of rubber
manufacturers-have dropped their
own foreign organizations and now
CIV upon the Government. So swift
is the information in reaching the
United States that the bureau was
recently able to scoop" the efficient
foreign organization of the Baldwin
Locomotive Company with the news
of the Argentine narrow-gauge rail-
way plans.
Broadcasting Information
No innovation wrought by the new
administration of the bureau is more
marked than its method of broad
casting in the United States the in
formation which its agents gather
abroad. Two years ago the bureau,
besides its statistical summaries,
published the daily consular reports.
THESE reports contained miscellane-
Gus and u~nassorted data just as they
came in through the mails and owe
the cables. Today the consular re-
ports are no more They nave beer
succeeded by a 50-page weekly mag
azine called Commerce Reports, at
tractiveiy printed and bound, intelli-
gently edited, and in every way com
pairing f~avorably with the best OF
trade journals.
Commerce Reports is exactly what
its subtitle calls it A Weekly Sur
vey OF Foreign Trade" Once each
month the foreign agents OF h Blu
reau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce are required to send in a gen.
eral-condition report answering Al
questions which have been carefully
formulated by experts as those nee
essary to bring out the complete
and pertinent economic picture of 9
nation or region. These reports art
\ digested and summarized by the edi-
torial staff of the magazine in Wash
Iington. The first issue of Commerce
Reports for each month gives the
current economic survey Of Latr
America; the issue of the month
takes up Europe; the third, the Fal
East: and the fourth, the Near East
Thus once a month the entire com
mercia1 world is examined for thu
peneiit of American business men.
This survey has an incidental bu