The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-09-13
US. MUST TAKE
WORLD LEAD,
HE SAYS
Baldwin Locomotive Head De-
cIares Financing Will
Create Markets.
BY EARLE G. REEVES.
Copyright, 1923. by Cosmopolitan
News Service)

-
| land, Germany and France made
the world. England particularly,
made the. United States what 1t is
today. Her money developed our
railroads and industries.
"Now it is Americas turn to as
sumo leadership"
Samuel NJ Vauclain may under
stand the difficulties under which
international trade is carried on
in these disturbed postwar days
but such difficulties are no more
than ground swclls as he sees them.
u. S. to Make World.
Within twenty years our bankers
will be making" the world, Vau-
CLAIM holds; they will re@make far
off countries by the laying Of rai!s
roads and the Installation of ma
chinery; they will do it as a matter
of routine, casually. AS they now
extend a helpful loan to the bust
ness interests of their own cities.
so will they soon be sending Ameri-
can dollars into foreign parts to
develop nations end localities to a
higher state so that they may be-
come customers of America. They
are doing this thing already, but
they do it with timidity-as an
adventure into the unknown.
These are Vauclain ideas. They
are ideas which dominate the Bald
win Locomotive Works, of which
he is the head; and they are ideas
which he breaches to other business
men at every opportunity
But foreign buying power has
decreased, foreign production of
grains has increased, that the fall
of the mark has cut America off
from the opportunity Of selling to
the vast market of German con-
sumers. Bear arguments, all. 1
sought Vauclain's measure of the
present economic situation in Eu-
rope.
Germany to Come Back.
Germany is wiped out" he said.
''She will come back, Of course. But
we had better prepare to forget her
as big factor for the next fifteen
years.
Although there was great de-
struction of wealth in Francois
MISUNDERSTANDING the war, France
today is very prosperous, active and
strong. But she needs to expand a
great deal of her energies at home.
She is not nearly so much of world
factor as. she was ten years ago.
England could do more, but
doesn't. England is mending old
shoes. The British business man is
not authorizing anything new. They
are obsessed with the ida that there
can be no prosperity until the Ger
man market is restored to the world.
They will venture nothing. They are
afraid. England has less unemploy-
ment by a quarter of million than
she had at the first of this year,
but she waits. England is in about
the position in which we found our
selves two years ago, when our bust
ness men would not buy supplies be-
yond the. narrowest immediate use
and feared to spend money in ex-
pansion and development of business.
Russia has been wiped off the
map also. She is mending slowly.
Sees Americas Opportunity.
These things mean Americas
business opportunity. American
business men are grasping the
opportunity. They realize that
while in normal times Germany
was a great market for our surplus
goods she was also a serious com.
petitor in all parts of the world.
other. Instead of being possessed
by fears, Americans have proved
that they can go ahead in their
business of buying and selling with
out Germany. We do not need her:
Canada and Mexico combined
constitute a bigger market for our
goods than does the entire con-
tinent of Europe. Now that Eng
land is bound by fear, France by
her home needs and Germany is
helpless, South America and the
Orient become potential major mar
kets for u.s."
But are the countries of South
America and the Orient wealthy
enough to become big customersY
he was asked.
"They are wealthy" replied Mr.
Vauclain, but they have no
money.
They are wealthy in natural re-
sources or in populations that may
become huge producing and con-
Stunning populations, with our help,
if we use our money in building the
world as England, Germany and
France have used their money in
the past.
Sold to Mexico.
Il went to Mexico City to see
Oregon. Mexico needed locomo-
tives and cars. Transportation is
the backbone Of a prosperous ma.
ton / tried to seel the railway
equipment which our Southern
neighbor so badly needed. Obregon
made me proposition. If / would
loan them one million dollars he
! would order five million dollars
worth of equipment, on credit. He
needed not only equipment, but
money with which to reorganize the
railways / went him fifty-fifty.
We loaned him half a million dol
| lars and took his notes also for
| two and half million dollars worth
of engines and cars.
1--WE had sold on credit in Cuba
Cuba owed us several millions
when the price Of sugar collapsed
| We believed in the Cubans and in
their ability to recover. Instead Of
| Withdrawing and eXerting pressure
money there. Today they owe us
| less than a million.
| "Argentina needed a great deal
| Of railway equipment. But she also
needed money with which 10 get
her railroads started. We loaned
one and a half million to them and
sold them five million dollars
worth of rolling stock. 1t will all
come back, and we shall have a
permanent market. That is the
way England and Germany got the
| n ho yup,,IJ'e