The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-05-07
NEED FOR FOREIGN TRADE

NEED FOX FOKElGN ikADE
 It is mere matter of time when the maximum production now taking place in America will have filled the homesvoid. What then? If the export trade outlets of the American manu- facturer are not operative for the movement of heavy production to other nations production will slow down. The American consumer is not being stampeded. He believes there will be production sufficient to care for his needs. Pittsburg reports that .'the premium market is less active" meaning that steel users are not ner- vous and are mot offering bonuses to obtain prompt supply. The American IMmberman says that "a great deal of caution is exercised by retail deal CTS ,and they are buying only as they find it necessary" There has been month of minimums trading in the pig iron market. The maximum of pro- duction is met with a maximum of consumption, but consumers are pur- chasing as they need material and are not stimulating prices .by a frenZed effort at protecting themselves for distant future deliveries. This counts for the prolongation of the present prosperity.
 It still follows that this maximum production and this maximum place J equipment, the building of homes, stores and factories, waterworks sys- tems and highway construction will eventually so far fill the great void that production must have large ex- port outlet or it will decline. Edward N. Hurley, former chairman of the federal trade commission and the ship ping board, in an address before the New Orleans, called attention to the effect of unusual domestic demand and consumption at night prices thus: American orders at home are being obtained without very much effort and in many cases at high prices These high prices on domes- i tic orders frequently create indiffer- ence toward foreign trade, seriously affecting our merchant marine and country at time when we need ex- ports to balance our increasing inn ports" What many American manu- lecturers in position to cater to the export trade do not seem to have real ized is the value of regular custom CTS in other nations. The retail mer- chant and the wholesaler do not rely on the transient trade for their profits, but their effort is to build up regu- lar trade to be depended on at all seasons. Trading with other nations is not different from trading with ones neighbors. It requires contin- uity of effort and the establishment of permanent relations of good will. Germany and Great Britain have un- derstood this for generations and the result has been the development of their export trade even on the south ern portion of this continent where l Amoflcan CIaQe SIlOulu nave UceH par amount.
 There is not the least doubt that the export trade will again be as badly needed as it has been in times past. Birmingham will not soon forget that the principal mainstay of it's steel in- dustry in the period of depression was the export trade; that the little brown man came nearer keeping us going than all-American consumption. As MT. Hurley said, we need some of the old fighting trade spirit of the clipper days. This easy domestic business will not last always. Whether, when it is over, we keep going on full turn or drop to uncomfortably small opera tions depends on whether we shall have sufficiently established foreign trade relations of permanent nature. This is especially worthy of the con- sideration of Alabama manufacturers whose advantageous position for the export business via the Warrior and Port of Mobile invites effort to se- cure foreign trade on basis of low cost transportation.
 
 WNMEN V0TERS CONVENE