Evening star., 1931-12-01
SELLING U. SHORT
HELD DANGEROUS
Commerce Department Off
ciaI Cites Factors Making
for Business Recovery.

Frederick M. Feiker, director Of the
Commerce Departments Bureau Of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce. says
selling America short SC any time is
likely to prove a perilouS proceeding
and "it is particularly dangerous now"
Returning to Washington. from New
York, where he addressed national
bakers organization, Feiker said no
man who calmly looks at America as
nation can fail to take courage and
to gain confidence.
you and l." he added, will un-
doubtedly live to see the men who
are betting against the United States
and its future, carried away to a busi-
ness burial within a comparatively
short time"
Trade Groups at Work.
The bureau director asserted that
dispasSionate view of conditions will
give business men faith In the future
Of American trade and industry. and
will convince us all that the answer
to many of our immediate and future
problems lies in taking the longtime
viewpoint and in conducting our opera
tions on the basis of facts and fact
finding
He said that about 142 organized
trade groups were today at work in the
field Of commercial research in CO.
operation with the Commerce Depart
ment. He explained they are laying
the practical groundwork in facts for
which must conform to the funda-
mental American principle of individ-
ual initiative and individual achieve
ment for individual reward.
The results Of the first national CEN
sus of distribution, which, he said, gave
a wealth of hitherto unknown facts as
to this country'S wholesale and retail
into shape and, linked with the census
of manufacturers and the population
census, will offer new means OF analyz-
ing domestic markets.
Feiker cited five social assets an
being the background against which
American business today Is projecting
its efforts to succeed at home and
abroad. They are:
Ia stubborn and transcendent belief. in
s5 n in tsas shf horn Ct
9 better, place to live in and more Of COM
IA tremendous fund Of American in
genuity, adaptability, alertness and cour-
SIA people. sane and sober. in the
Of intelligence, the highest in the. world.
which cannot be stampeded to embrace
political or economic nostruns.
"Our economic assets" he said, are:
Ia national wealth Of ss5o;0oo. 100000.
with of them FainfSiS
despite our unemployment problem. making
up the greatest consuming market the world
"a manufacturing industry doing an
annual business of SO 900 900, 600.
IA wholesale establishment handling
Nearly SO ooC. .ooo: 900 year. sS sne A0u' oi
5.-RetaiI merchandising activities which
represent sSsoSo 100000 year hv o,,r
people for themselves representing s27.0o0,-
100000 deposited in our savings banks
surance to which our people added $780,
ooO; goo In the first six months Of the cur
"a stable currency system backed by
an unprecedented gold reserve. "a.
9.-A productive capacity for mass output
unrivalled in the past or. present and q
satisfy a vast range Of customers.
iomAmeFiean inyestmenss eS me Gc abroad valued
Business Reports Sought.
In the face OF, this array Of facts,
he asserted, no American can Justify
economic defeatism: no business man
can conscientiously be bear" as to
the United States. That the American
business man Is no defeatist Is proved
in Washington daily, he added. where
in the Department of Commerce we
are working under forced draft to pro-
vide the service which the fighting
American manufacturer, wholesaler or
retailer Is demanding Of his Govern
ment in both the foreign and domestic
field"