The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1945-11-22
LOOKING
AAAD
~ GEORGE S. BENSON
\ ResidsxfoXandzxg college
SeAseE ArkaxsHs
Keeping Busy

Foreign trade is a tricky topic.
Open a discussion on the subject
and you are sure to let out a sur
prising number Of positive opinions,
differing widely. Some people look
on foreign trade as the mother Of
international disputes and think the
United States could get along as
well or better without any. I never
saw a survey dealing with the sub
ject but / believe relatively few
people, even in America, know how
foreign trade affects them.
Foreign trade helps this country a
great deal. If busy factories and
plenty of good jobs are helpful, so
is foreign trade because it keeps
factories busy. If ready markets
for farm products. at good prices
help the country, so does foreign
trade because foreign buyers make
prices good. Capturing and hold
ing foreign markets is a matter of
efficiency in manufacturing. Who
ever gets foreign trade completes
with the world on a price basis.
AOWcIluS IIlCCS
Keeping down prices on Ameri-
can-made goods so they can COM
pete with merchandise made by
half-starved European and Asiatic
labor calls for minimum costs. A
large part Of the cost Of any manu-
featured article is wages Of the
workers who make it, and wages in
America are high-twice to ten
times as high as elsewhere. The
United States would be hardly bet
ter than any other land if wage
scales had to be the same, SO how
can we compete in foreign markets?
There is only one way: through eff
f1ciency.
Factories of the United States are
faced with a challenge to outpro-
duce all foreign countries after the
war-to turn out more manufac-
tured goods per man-hour than the
plants Of any other nation. Unless
they manage to begin this promptly
after the fighting stops, some other
industrial nation will take the lead.
And when sales volume justifies the
investment, any country can, cut
costs with mass production and hold
on tight to world commerce.
Do We Want It?
II Americans wish to dominate
world trade after this war, they can
capture the prize with ease. No
question Of ability Is involved.
American manufacturers found a
way, on very short notice, to pro-
duce more arms and munitions than
all the rest Of the world combined.
They a do the same with prod
ucts of peacetime demand. It's all
a matter Of whether the American
people, farmer and worker and you
and I, will cooperate Fundamentally
to secure maximum production at
minimum cost-in other words, top
efficiency.
Several years ago when jobs we're
scarce, a philosophy of extrava-
gance spread through American
mills and shops under the charitable
slogan of "Share the work" Pres
emily three men were doing no more
than two had done before and manu-
featuring efficiency declined. Costs
increased in such cases, and prices
advanced accordingly. Many items
of American goods disappeared
from foreign markets. Sales fell
off, and each new day brought fewer
jobs to share. Extravaganza never
benefited anybody.
What does foreign trade mean to
somebody who is not in the export
ing business? 1t means keeping
busy. To the manufacturer it is
extra volume to cut the unit-cost Of
whatever he makes; to the worker,
more regular employment; to the
farmer, better prices. To the small
business man it means improved
general prosperity.
Current Problem
But" somebody says, that's a
postwar problem. Let's win the
war now and cross that bridge when
we get to it."
We are crossing that bridge now
whether we think we are ready or
not. Incentive plans to boost fac
tory production without hiring more
people have been tried and proved
effective, but some people don't like
them. Instead, out Of Washington
come rumblings of labor conscrip-
ton, something nobody even mag
ines can improve production per
man-hour. We will win or lose our
foreign trade by the spirit developed
during the war. If it is lost, our
standards of living must be lowered.