Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-05-11
PHIL To
Be HOST
Foreign Trade Observation-Disclosures
Prosperity Through Greater
Foreign Trade
BY THADDEUs S. DAYTON

BY THADDEUS S. DAYTON
The eyes of the business world will
be focused on Philadelphia for three
days, when the industrial, COMMERCIAL
and financial brains of the nation will
gather for the Ninth National Foreign
Trade Convention. The sessions,
which will be held May 10th, 18th
and 18th, will bring together Amer
lean manufacturers, bankers, export
ers, and business men of all degrees
in a campaign to stimulate foreign |
trade to such an extent that the large t
surplus of American industrial and |
agricultural production, estimated at |
from Is to 20 per cent, over domestic |
consumption, will be absorbed.
Such an absorption, it is empha- |
sized will stimulate American indus
try to such an extent that once these |
foreign markets are obtained and
held, permanent prosperity will re-
place ''stagnation periods" in the in
dustries of this country, and idleness,
both of plants and workers, will be
no more.
Definite policies, designed to stimu-
late foreign trade will be formulated,
and details of these policies and how
they are to be worked out will be
clearly brought to the attention of
the nations business men and law
makers.
Greater Prosperity Through Greater
| Foreign Trade"
Is the slogan adopted for the Con-
vention, and the keynote of the big
gathering will be sounded by James
A. Farrell, President of the United
States Steel Corporation, in his ad-
dress on "a Foreign Trade Policy for
Americans"
Idle Factories to Get to Work.
The financing and expansion of for
elgn trade will be the basic theme of
the sessions. One effective method of
putting this policy into effort will be
lpointed out under the topic, '' A For
eign Loan Policy That Will Enable
Idle Factories to Get to Work" One
of the leading bankers of the coun-
try, who is also internationally known,
has been assigned to this topic The
National Foreign Trade Council, I'M
der whose auspices the convention is
held annually, has already opened
nationwide campaign among bankers
and investors to make it a condition
Of foreign loans that all or a great
part OF the money shall be spent for
American products. Leading mem
bers of the Council point out that
while hundreds Of millions of dollars
have been invested by Americans in
these foreign loans, American indus
try and commerce have not benefited
by them. Attention is called to the
long recognized practice of British
and European bankers in making such
loans conditional upon the spending
of the proceeds for goods produced in
the lending countries.
Such a policy in the United States
would result, it is pointed out, in not
only swelling the volume of American
exports but it would also mean that
American industrial plants now idle
or on part time would be run at full
capacity.
Every American exporter and bust
ness man is interested in the depre-
ciated currency tangle in Europe, and
this will be taken up. "The Merchant
Marine, an International Problem"
Twill be discussed.
The Troubles Hous" of the conven-
ton will be devoted to a discussion
on foreign credits.
Organization of the Trade Adviser
Service, which is free to the dele
gates, is progressing rapidly, and
about 100 highly qualified experts ac-
lively engaged in foreign trade will
answer questions and solve Individual
problems. In addition, large delega-
ton of trade experts from the Depart
ment of Commerce and Industry will
be present. Sessions of the Conven-
ton will be held in the Academy of
Music, and the Trade Adviser Service
will be located nearby in the Bellevue
Stratford Hotel, the Convention head
quarters.
Emphatic approval of the Conven-
| TONS objective is announced by w P
G. Harding, governor of the Federal
Reserve Board, who in his statement
that the Convention will be of great
benefit to American agriculture, COM
merce and industry" announces the
removal of certain limitations placed
upon credit acceptances by American
banks, thus simplifying the work of
these institutions in financing trade
with foreign countries.