The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-03-27
A CALL TO ACTION

- 0rNA- y - ~ fs~a
The time is not so long past when
the foreign trade OF the United States
was simply question of ships. To-
day IL is a question of markets There
are plenty of ships. Hundreds OF
them are tied up at wharves or lying
idle in the stream at every large port
earning nothing and adding to de-
preston and unemployment.
Domestic consumption has returned
almost to normal and there is GER
tainty that the period of economic de-
preston so far as this Is concerned
is approaching the end. Every manu-
facturer and business man IS receiving
evidence that the worst is over, and
that the CLEANS of the rising sun of
prosperity will soon be apparent on
the business horizon.
But purely domestic consumption
cannot take care Of the full production
of American industry. There is but
one way to put our idle manufactur-
ing plants, our idle ships and our I'M
employed to work and that is by the
expansion of our foreign markets so
that our surplus products will be sold
abroad. Our plants, because of the
abnormal demands due to the world
war, have been equipped and keyed up
for this high production. Our idle fac
tories represent the surplus industrial
capacity of the nation. And it is this
surplus that must be turned to some
profitable use before full prosperity
can again come to the manufacturer,
the worker, and the investor. Experts
~ f.,4
America is dependent upon healthy
growth of our foreign trade, and that
expansion of our export business is
necessary to absorb the 20 per cent
difference between domestic produc-
ton and domestic consumption.
1t is this 20 per cent that must be
sold before normal prosperity can be
restored to this country, a prosperity
that cannot be realized until indus
trial plants now idle or on part time
are reopened and put back on full
schedule. How to market this surplus
abroad, how to finance and expand our
foreign trade, will be the central
theme of the Ninth National Foreign
Trade Convention In Philadelphia,
May 10, IL and u, when thousands of
the ablest business minds in the coun-
try will meet and concentrate on these
problems. Every manufacturer, ex-
porter, trade organization or individ-
ual, who is interested in any way in
foreign trade is invited to attend this
convention. 1t Is not in any sense a
social gathering. and no academic
questions will clutter up the program.
There are no special interests to be
~ ha or1Sn1InA for
the benefit of any one class or individ-
ual, or for any particular section of
the country. Its sponsors are hard
headed, practical business men, lead
ers in the industrial, commercial and
financial and shipping life of the ma
ton who are working to put the pros
perity that is returning to the United
States on a solid and permanent basis.
A notable feature of the National
Foreign Trade Convention will be the
presence of 100 of the country's best
experts on foreign trade who will give
their attention to the particular ex-
port problems of individual n1anufac
turers. Their services are free, and
specific information of the utmost
value will be given on specific prob
lens. These mon are not theorists but
intensely practical individuals whose
wide experience in export trade enables
them to speak with conviction on
every phase of how to get, how to
handle and how to keep foreign trade.
The time has come for every man
interested in the return of national
prosperity to answer the call to action
sounded by the Ninth National For
eign Trade Convention. He who sits
back has only himself to blame if he
does not share in the results that are
certain to follow.