Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-31

entire world would have to come to
American industries and American
workers for every product needed. Fall
ing that, they might accept conditions
under which at best every product
which America offers to the world for
sale would be manufactured by Ameri-
can workers on American soil. 1t is
these persons who look with doubt and
distrust on this trend of American in
dustry to establish branches in the
heart of foreign markets. We never
theleSs live in q world operated by
forces beyond our immediate control.
This tendency Of American industry Is
one of these forces. It is certainly not
to be stopped; and, in my estimation,
it is not to be feared.
Our very tariff policy Is the product
OF another of these forces. If human
nature were perfect, we should need no
tariff at all--the good American buyer
in any typical American store, when
offered a choice between American
goods and the product of another coun-
try, would hesitate not a second. He
would say, This foreign article may
be more attractive and can buy it at
a lower price 1t doesn't matter.
will buy the American article and help
keep the American worker employed
and the profits at home"
Human nature, it happens, doesn't
work that way. You cannot persuade
human beings to put such distractions
above immediate personal gain. When
you come down to it, we raise a tariff
not so much against foreign goods as
against this human tendency in our
selves. We collectively guard ourselves
against weakness that we know we
cannot trust the individual to resist.
&c no cd ND
losophy of the tariff. 1t Is our way OF
insuring the stability of American in
dustry and the American worker against
human frailty And it has become
part of our very life.
Money for Largest Return.
An even stronger tendency in the
human being Is to put out his money
where 1t will bring him the largest re-
turn. If we did not allow this tendency
free rein, enterprise and progress
would stop in their tracks. That also
is a fixed belief In the Americans way
of thinking. 1t accounts for everything
that we have accomplished in our in
duStrial advance. And 1t accounts for
this reashing out of American enter
prise toward the establishment of rep
resentative industries in other lands.
Being the natural force that it is, it
is not to be stopped. We would be wise
not to stop it, even If we could. But
just as we have set tariff to guard
us against one human weakness, we
may have to find and apply brake in
certain instances on this outflow of our
industrial capital and enterprise to
other countries.
Where establishment of an American
industry abroad means the closing of
that industry here at home, we may
have to find means of discouraging this.
The time has not yet arrived, but the
contingency is one to think of and pre-
pare for.
In every respect I see little to fear
from this branching out of American
energy. The truth is that America
with its original inventive genius, and
with its piled-up experience and ac-
cumulative capital, has become the
power house of the world. For years
other countries have been sending
commissions here to study, learn and
apply our methods In the creation of
wealth. We have made no secret OF
these methods. We could not have kept
them secret had we so wished. We
have left it to other peoples to copy us
as they pleased and could And an in
stinctive wisdom has prompted us to
this. We have senSed that world en-
riched as we have been enriched would
be richer market for our goods.
We further have Sensed a fact that
in the end will save us from COMPETE
ton with these other peoples and their
improving production methods. That
fact is the diversity of these peoples.
and the human tendency of each to
turn out its characteristic line of prod
ucts. The proof of that is the very
diversity of these foreign products
which makes them so attractive in the
American market that we have to pro-
tect ourselves from them.
U. S. Enterprise Abroad.
Now we are not waiting for these
Others TO come and learn from us.
American enterprise and method are
planting themselves on foreign soil.
Naturally the aim of those interested in
this is not to educate other people but
to make money for themselves. This
American initiative is only expanding
and expanding itself in response to an
other natural law 1t is a power. and
like any power, it will and must exert
itself. But this power cannot enter
upon these industrial efforts in other
countries without gradually spreading
educational effect, along with all the
benefits of American industry.
We have seen this process at work
here at home. In one backward COM
munity after another we have seen the
typical American industrial method
carry its higher wages, liberal treatment
and enlarged buying power among the
workers. In other countries social or
political differences may slow up this