Evening star., 1928-10-21
Continued from Third PageD

which Is only gradually being made up,
he's been due to the ravageS of war and
not to "avaricious Yankee traders
There are certain striking phases of
this postwar advance of ours which are
worthy of careful analysis. One Of the
outstanding features, as indicated above.
has been the expansion in the field OF
fabricated exports. The proportion cf
our total overseas sales made up of
wholly and partly manufactured goods
has risen from 46.7 per cent during
1910-19f4, to 56.3 per cent last year. If
We conflne the observation to finished
manufactures. We note that the per-
centage of the total made up of that
category rose during these years from
3o.7 to 41.6.
The advance of some Of the more
conspicuous American specialties has
been truly spectacular Our exports of
automobiles, parts and accessories rose
in millions of dollars from an average
Of about "a in the five pre-war years to
3S5 last year. machinery jumped in that
time from 1S8 to 435; iron and steel
mill products from 81 to 160; cotton
manufactures from 81 to rs: rubber
products from IL to 50; paper manu-
factureS from IL to 81: books and print
ed matter from to "a. and paints and
varnish from 6.S to 81. Clearly this
new world of demand which has risen
out of the ashes. of 1914-1S is calling
for the fruits of Americas experiences
with just such pioneering problems as
those now being encountered in the
newly awakened lands of Latin America
and the transpacific.
Another gratifying aspect of this COM
n1elce has been that the participants
in IL are no longer confined to few
large firms. but are made up Of greatly
increased numbers of small and me-
dium-sized concerns. That "inferiority
complex which in the old days so
persistently frightened the less pre-
tentious manufacturer and merchant.
who felt that he did not know how
TO pack for export. was not equipped
to extend excessive credits to unknown
foreigners and did not know anything
about their languages and customs
anyhow" has been replaced by def
mite assurance and confident courage.
This has been built up primarily be-
cause of the fact-f1nding facilities now
at the disposal of the little fellows"
through the expanded service Of the
Department of Commerce and other
agencies which have dispelled the fogs
of doubt and fear and have marked
out the highways Of the worlds COM
else indicators. which in pre-war times
we're available only to the largest cor
porations in the country.
A large majority of the 10000 in
quiries coming to the Department OF
Commerce every day on foreign busi-
ness matters originate with these small
concerns, and the questions are getting
more exact and more exacting as time
goes on-an encouragingly healthy In
t~a+A
which this new movement is permeat-
ing our business communities. A small
manufacturer in Illinois asks for the
precise terms governing the protesting
Of a draft in Mauritius, in the medieval
days before 1914 il this query had come
In at all, it would have been In the
form of a timorous rs there such a
place as MauritiuS. or is that simply
something that you take for what ails
you?"
Fear Is Dissipated.
A second encouraging element in this
new era in our export trade is the In
creasing evidence that its growth Is
based largely upon the consistent, far
viewed policies of the participants and
is no longer of the crude, pre-war
touch-and-go opportunism. When it
comes to credit terms, for example,
there Is no longer the child-like fear
of the German superiority bugaboo. 1t
Is gradually dawning upon our small
exporters in particular that this coun-
try. as the home of installment-plan
selling. has little. if anything, to learn
from the Old World in matters Of
sound credit policy.
Then, too, the vast experiences OF our
soundly established and widely prev
alent practice Of interchange of credit
information In manner utterly un-
known to the conservative circles across
the Atlantic give us decided ad-
vantage. This is especially true because
Of the drastic changes which have been
wrought by the chaotic unheavals in
the commercial communities around
the world, which have transformed
credit methods and made entirely use
less the old-fashioned credit methods
so conspicuous in European export oper-
ations.
One of the best indicators Of the
widespread appreciation of this new era
Of precise credit information Is the fact
that the Department of Commerce sup
piled, on request. no less than $4,000
lists Of desirable foreign agents for
American exporters during the fiscal
year 1929, as against about 100000
Ill 1SZJ-S<.
AS indicated above our sales abroad
today account for about 10 per cent OF
our total commerce. small proper
ton. perhaps. but it has been aptly
called our prosperity balance" the
margin that spells the difference be-
tween we'll being for our country and
the possible pinch of economic need.
The difference between fresh egg and
one approximately fresh may be so
slight-but it's there-and so with ex-
port trade: its modest contribution may
provide just that requisite extra edge
needed to keep the Nations business
wholesome.
In some cases, of course. the proper
ton of given industrys output which
is sold abroad is very considerable
nearly so per cent ~ .si,e case of motor
cvrleS. Is per cent for typewriters, 25
per cent for sewing machines, etc. In
automobiles the exported portion has
risen since 1925 from per cent of the
total output to about - per cent
even as high as II per cent for some
companies. For these important In
dustries. foreign trade is far from be.
ing q fad: it. is vital, and any serious
impairment of II would be- disastrous
not only to hundreds of Thousands o.
workers and stockholders, but to thu
countless retailers. farmers and other.
whose business Is dependent upon them
INreieT trade In q stabilizer IT take.