Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-30
Commerce in ConclaVe.

Washington is host again this week
to the annual meeting Of the Chamber
OF Commerce of the United States
guardian-in chief of the Nations bust
ness. The magnificent marble temple
which the chamber inhabits in the
Capital--a worthy link in Washington
splendid architectural schemes OF IT.
self living symbol Of the importance
OF commerce III national affairs When
that temple is the scene. as it now is
Of the yearly conc,ave of the chambers
vast membership, the country is i'm
pressirely reminded alike of the dignity
Of its commerce and of the high caliber
OF the men who have its welfare in
their keeping.
The chambers 1929 meeting synchro-
nizes with events abroad which lend
special significance to it. Last night
authoritative spokesman like DR.. Julius
Klein and julius H Barnes told of the
economic recovery of Europe and of the
inevitable and substantial effect of such
conditions upon the export trade of the
United States. They recorded, too, the
constructive roles being played at this
moment in Old World rehabilitation by
Americans like Messrs. Owen D. Young,
J. P. Morgan. Thomas w. Lamont and
Thomas N. Perkins. 1t will not be the
fault of these captains of Yankee
nance and industry if the reparations
onference at Paris is doomed for the
sacks and Europe reloaded for economic
depression and despair.
It would be impossible to overesti-
mate the value of the Chamber of Com
nnerce movement as a factor in making
the United States the foremost trading
Nation on earth. If Uncle Sam has
wrested from John Bull the title of
''shopkeeper Of the world" our Cham
bers Of Comnlerce-whetier here and
there they may be called boards of
trade or merchants associations or
what not. fer their purposes are CO.
ordinste-are mainly entitled to the
credit for that achievement. Today
hardly an American city with popula-
tion running to five figures is without
its Chamber of Commerce or the coun-
terpart thereof These tireless cru
saders in communal and civic advance
n1ent do not cover under the taunts of
self-anointed paladins of the intelli-
gentsia, who lose no opportunity to hurl
shafts of alleged wit at their boosting"
proclivities. AS generators of public well
fare they far outrank their high-browed
detractors
The Chamber of Commerce of the
United States, though barely sixteen
years old, has grown from fewer than
one hundred organization members in
1913 to some sixteen hundred today.
This membership. broadly democratic
in character, represents at present
roundly 100000 business firms and in
dividuals-a mighty phalanx of modern
commerce without parallel anywhere in
the world.
Our country is proud of its business
and of the Nationwide federation that
speaks in its united name 1t recog-
nizes in the Chamber Of Commerce of
the United States an institution which
knows neither section nor selfish in
terest; which is sleepless in the pursuit
OF better relations between capital and
labor; which recognizes the equality of
all branches Of American commerce.
agricultural as well as industrial, and
which strives necessarily to elevate the
business Of great business Nation to
an even higher level both at home and
abroad.