Evening star., 1925-09-08
BIC WORLD TRADE
DRIVE HELD NEAR
American Producers Urged
to Expand and Prepare for
Keen Competition.
nv i. G. R0YI.F.

Special Dispatch-to The Star.
NEW YORK. September S.-The
marked improvement in European
conditions reported today by j. Walter
Drake. assistant secretary of com
nerce, who has just returned from
an Investigation of industrial develop
ments there, brought immediate
warning from trade authorities that
American producers must prepare for
keen world trade competition
Within the next Is to 20 years will
come a tremendous expa nsion In
foreign trade for which it is none too
soon to prepare now. said William
B. Gibbs. president of Gibbs Bros,
Inc, who has made a life study of
trade routes and foreign trade devel
opn1ents. Gibbs Bros. is the firm
which reconditioned the Leviathan
and which designed and Is building a
present the largest and ia stest mer
chant ship ever constructed in an
American yard.
Greater Trade With China.
The main development" Mr.. Gibbs
asserted. will come with trade in the
Orient, especially China"
The main manufacturing and pro-
ducing centers of the world he con-
tinued, ARE in the United States and
in Great Britain and northern Eu-
rope. You have only to unfold
mercater's projection and on that
map of the world see the geo
graphical advantage this country
holds in supplying the new markets
In which this new demand will be de-
veloped.
Factors I'm Winning Trade.
Speed and cost of delivery is a
prime essential in capturing these
markets. The distance TO the mar
kets of Brazil and Argentine is no
greater from New York and North
Atlantic ports than from the British
and German shipping points. The
same applies to the east African and
south African territories. To the
West Indies and Central America the
American advantage from New Or
leans and other harbors is even more
marked. The saving of mileage should
give this country an absolutely domi-
nant position in the trade of the
west coast of South America.
The Pacific coast ports have an
incompatible position with regard TO
transport of goods to Japan. China
eastern Russia, Malaga and Aus
tralia, and even the Atlantic shipping
points have all the better of such
routes, compared with foreign COM
pettors, by reason of the Panama
Canal
Urges More American Ships.
This country can produce the
necessary goods with but little added
preparation. But 1t cannot trans
port the goods effectively. ex-
peditiously and with full profit unless
1t provides its own merchant marine
To transport American goods in
foreign ships is to place ones self at
the mercy Of an adversary and TO
share profits with him in advance
The building up of a merchant marine
therefore Is a question which affects
every American citizen, just as the
Panama Canal did, not as a matter
of pride but of individual profit
The only profitable customer Is
one who can and will pay. How will
the Orient develop its buying power?"
the writer asked.
China has that greatest of all as
sets-lab bor,'' Mr.. Gibbs answered
The China trade at present Is of no
mean proportion when its 400, ,000, 900
people can buy but a few cents worth
of goods a year each. 1t is perfectly
possible to import pital into a
country, but it is impossible to give
1t labor in the bulk.
Capital will go into China and
natural resources will be developed
by means of outside capital and local
labor.
The Orient has tremendous re
sources, but little machinery. America
is the greatest producer of industrial
machinery in the world. With the
combination of capital, labor and ma
chinery. the Orient will have a po-
tential buying power that will be tre-
mendous."
Mr.. Gibbs secuted the idea of dan
ger to American industries from COM
petition from cheap Oriental labor
saying that the efficiency of Ameri-
can workers discounted any advantage
TO the producers of the East from
lower wages and cheaper standard of
living. He indicated that the develop
ments in the Far East would eventu-
ally mean the establishment of huge
industrial plants in the western part
of the United States to take full ad-
vantage of nearness to the Oriental
markets.
(Copyright. 1927