Recent Events

1916

According to Seattle Times, a $22,000,000 fleet is to be built in Pacific coast ports for A. U. Anderson & Co. of Copenhagen, Denmark, which will be placed under American flag. 14 vessels already have been contracted for.

Citizen soldiers who attended earlier camps at Plattsburg, N. Y., as well as those now in training there, will receive from government their traveling and subsistence expenses under army appropriation bill passed by Congress.

Mexican de facto government has promulgated decree requiring companies engaged in production of crude oil in Mexico to register in the tax bureau of ministry of finance before Sept. 15.

Department of commerce reports that 221 firms are holding nearly 5,000,000 cases of eggs — about 143,000,000 dozen — in cold storage, or 10 per cent less than a month ago.

Herald New York despatch says railroads may delay attack on eight-hour law. Prominent officials believe President Wilson's statement to Congress Friday was a pledge of remedial legislation and are inclined to await outcome of election.

State department has received information of an agreement between Great Britain and Norway whereby latter will place an export embargo on raw copper and will receive without interruption imports of copper from this country.

Copper is now chief article of export from Alaska. Export value for year to June 30 was $26,488,000, compared with $5,182,000 in 1915. Receipts of copper from Alaska aggregated 117,000,000 pounds.

A new labor union, composed of government employees, has decided to ask President Wilson to make Saturday a half-holiday for all government workers throughout the year.

Arrangements are being made for formation of a $50,000,000 automobile company in France to manufacture cheap cars after war capable of competing with Ford.

New revenue bill makes income tax returns public records, with proviso requiring an order by the President before such records can be seen.

London Times says that Swedish harvest will be finest on record, crop yield being from 50 per cent to 200 per cent above average.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 7.

New York Millinery District

1916

New York, Sept. 10. — With the avowed purpose of shifting the leaders in the millinery trade from Broadway and its vicinity in the section between Bleecker and Fourteenth streets to West Thirty-fourth street, in the Pennsylvania station zone, and to Seventh avenue between Thirty-fourth and Forty-second streets, John A. Larkin yesterday announced the determination of the Larkin and other prominent building interests to proceed immediately with the construction of five sixteen story buildings and one seventeen story structure within the boundaries outlined.

The six new buildings will provide ninety-seven floors of modern show and sales rooms, containing approximately 1,500,000 square feet of rentable floor area, practically all of which huge amount of space, according to Mr. Larkin, already has been underwritten by the leading millinery firms of the city now located south of 14th street.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 7.

U. S. Will Retaliate Only as Last Report.

1916

Washington, Sept. 6 — What shall be the attitude of the Entente Allies toward American trade relation legislation, will be determined by the Grand Trade Council of the 10 belligerent Governments at Paris.

Entente diplomats here said tonight no action will be taken until authorization has been received from the council, and in the meantime all information on the subject obtainable is being forwarded to Paris.

Formal notes of protest from the various Governments are not expected. It is thought no formal action will be taken unless the President actually puts into force the discretionary power of refusing clearance papers to ships discriminating against American goods, withholding the use of telegraphs and cable lines from subjects of discriminating Governments and denying import privileges to countries which restrict American trade.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 7.

England Will Not Drop Blacklist

1916

London, Sept. 8. — "It is not likely that Great Britain will change her blacklist policy at the request of the United States," said Lord Robert Cecil, minister of war, in discussing today the possible effect of recent American retaliatory legislation. To the Associated Press, Lord Robert stated that a reply to the blacklist protest made by the United States may be expected soon. Lord Robert, however, declined to enter into the details of the contents of the reply beyond the statement that the principle embodied in British legislation forbidding trading with an enemy country is unlikely to be surrendered in any measure.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 7.

Is Blacklist Worth While?

1916

London, Sept. 7. — Commenting on the amendment to the revenue bill passed by the United States Senate Tuesday night, empowering the President to retaliate against interference with American commerce, the Manchester Guardian says that although those who see in it no more than a flourish having a special virtue on the eve of election may be right, "nevertheless we should do well to note two things:

"First — These reprisals are directed against the Allies, and primarily against ourselves.

"Second — They are popular in America."

The Guardian says it is not generally realized here how strong a sentiment has been aroused throughout the United States by the blacklist policy and interference with mails, and asks: "If the Foreign Office is convinced these practices of ours are so useful as to counterbalance the weakening of American sympathy they involve, or that they cannot be modified so as to meet American objections without impairing any utilities they may have for ourselves."

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

An Elastic Tariff is the Need of America

1916

New York, Sept. 21. — Greater elasticity in the country's tariff system is necessary to meet trade conditions which will arise at the close of the war, according to reports submitted to the National Foreign Trade Council today by a committee which has investigated the foreign trade aspects of the tariff. The report says:

"All European nations will, with peace, have a large market to offer and may be expected to yield it only for opportunities to extend or protect from discrimination the foreign trade. The United States is normally the best customer of the United Kingdom and is one of the most profitable markets for France, Germany and all the other belligerents.

"With the exception of the United Kingdom all the belligerents have, in their tariff systems, ample resources for negotiations for tariff advantages and for retaliation against discrimination.

"The foregoing circumstance shows the necessity for greater elasticity in the American tariff system, regardless of whether the tariff is maintained for protection or for revenue or partially for each. It is obvious that the United States should have some method of adjusting the tariff to new conditions created by political or commercial change in the part of our competitors and our customers, without resorting to a general revision. The creation of the tariff commission should contribute to this end."

The council adopted a resolution directing that the council bring to the attention of the President, Congress and the Tariff Commission, when organized. "The necessity that the American tariff system shall possess adequate resources for the encouragement of the foreign trade of the United States by commercial treaties or agreements of executive concessions within defined limits and its protection from undue discrimination in the markets of the world."

Dollar Rules in Finance

1916

Paris, Sept. 19. — Max Hoschiller, in an article in the Temps, contrasts America's financial position now in respect to foreign countries with what it was before the war. The article says:

"Then the United States was sending to Europe from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 in interest on its borrowings, $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 spent by tourists, $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 to expatriates and $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 in ocean freights.

"Since the war the United States has imported $730,000,000 in gold and has paid back a considerable amount of its previous borrowings, has increased its foreign trade by $2,250,000,000 yearly and has loaned to foreign countries $1,470,000,000 so that the dollar now has replaced, to a considerable extent, the old sovereignty of the English pound abroad.

"Whether the United States will retain, with her deficient financial organization, the position recently won, will depend upon American financial and commercial policies. The arrival in France of an American commercial mission is an indication that Americans are realizing they must follow the law of exchanges between countries, buying in general, as much as they sell."

Iceland Ship Arrives

1916

New York, Sept. 23. — The Gullfoss, said to be one of the first Icelandic ships to visit the shores of the western hemisphere since the days of Leif the Lucky, tied up in New York harbor yesterday with a cargo of herring. Aboard the Gullfoss, a little steamer of 886 tons, is a crew of Icelandic sailors, officered by Icelandic navigators, and speaking virtually the same language that Leif, son of Eric the Red, spoke when he landed at Cape Cod about the year 1000. The ship is under command of Captain Sigurdur Pjeturssen, who told of the remarkable prosperity that has come upon Iceland since the European war started.

The Gullfoss brought twenty-eight passengers, mostly merchants, from Reykjavik, the capital, and other cities, who came to buy goods in American markets. On its return trip, the first of next month, the Gullfoss will pass a sister ship, the Gothaloss, bound for New York with a cargo of fish. Captain Pjeturssen said he hopes to see established a regular trade with the United States. The two vessels are owned by the Icelandic Steamship company. They sail under the Danish flag.

Amazingly high prices for products of the island have brought prosperity in the last two years, the captain said. The war created the first millionaires in Iceland, he declared, and also gave the island its first experience with labor troubles and other disorders of modern civilization. A strike of the fishermen's union on the island lasted throughout last summer.

The Folly of Tariffs

1916

Proposals for domestic trade barriers similar to those erected in international trade by tariff laws would be hooted down in derision. Suppose, for example, that the States had the right to erect tariff walls and some member of the Nebraska legislature should introduce a bill to place a heavy import duty on peaches, because, forsooth, the horticulturists of Colorado, California and Texas, one year with another, can produce peaches cheaper than the horticulturists of Nebraska. He would be met promptly with the argument that cheap peaches is just what we want; that if they can be grown to better advantage in other states, well and good; and that Nebraska can have more peaches by growing corn and hogs and wheat and buying peaches. His measure would not receive serious consideration. Indeed, many would earnestly contend that the proponent of such a measure should have his head examined. But when it comes to international trade politicians and candidates can go out and plead with the people to shut themselves off from cheap goods and "get away with it." We have hopes, however. — The Nebraska Farmer.

An Authorized Statement of President Wilson's Plans

1916

L.' Ames Brown in Collier's.

No sane man doubts that the coming of peace in Europe will modify profoundly the present conditions of business enterprise in the United States.

Among economists, as well as publicists, opinions differ as to the extent to which the industries of the nations now at war will be re-energized when peace makes them again our competitors in business. Some of our prophets have broadcasted the prediction that European manufacture may then be so speeded up that the resulting flood of products will swamp our industries unless they are protected by a solid tariff bulwark. Others, including President Wilson, hold that America, having husbanded and conserved her great resources while other nations were passing through the travail of a great war, is better able than ever before to meet the pace of her international competitors.

President Wilson believes that the American position is sound, not only because our resources have not been impaired, as have those of the European belligerents, but because our manufacturers have been stimulated and trained by new demands the war has made upon them. They have learned to meet, not only the war needs of Europe, but also those wants at home which heretofore foreign industry satisfied for us. Finally, the President attaches great importance to the fact that the United States has become, by reason of the Federal Reserve Act, the great financial power of the world.

Keen-minded men of every viewpoint are agreed, however, as to the imminence of severe new tests for American industry and as to the necessity of preparation to meet these tests. A period of intense competition looms up ahead of the nation — a competition of peace times which probably will not be comparable to any international industrial competition the world has ever known.

President Wilson believes that preparation for national defense is the first and most essential requirement the Government is called upon to meet. This he regards as a sort of insurance against an irremediable conflagration. But once our house has been put in order, it becomes the paramount duty of the Government to see to it that the most efficient preparation possible is made for the peace which will liberate the energies of the European power for industrial activity. Mr. Wilson already has looked ahead to the manner in which this primary duty of the American Government is to be performed, and he has evolved a comprehensive plan of preparation. It is the privilege of the writer of this article to present from intimate knowledge the views President Wilson has formulated with the object of giving a new and fuller meaning to American efficiency.

As soon as industrial preparedness is mentioned the mind of the American business man turns to the tariff. The tariff is the first line of trenches of American industry, our business men believe, and the first duty of the Government officers at work upon an adequate preparedness policy is to consider the question of tariff revision. Neither the President nor the well-informed business man has ignored the lesson contained in the announcement that Japan already has revised her tariff to meet new conditions; that England is preparing to enact prohibitive duties upon the products of her enemies and moderate duties upon the products of neutral nations at the close of the war; that Germany will revise all of her commercial treaties in 1917; and that a strong sentiment exists in England, France, Russia, and Italy for the negotiation of a commercial alliance.

The Tariff Must Be Revised.

President Wilson considers himself bound by no commitments save to a competitive tariff policy. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff Law embodied his ideas of the competitive needs of our industries at the time its schedules were framed — when pre-bellum industrial conditions obtained. His mind is entirely open as to the extent to which competitive conditions may have been modified by the European War. He does not need to be convinced that these conditions may be altered. He is prepared to act upon the facts as they may be gathered and their value impartially assessed through the instrumentality of a nonpartisan tariff commission. He considers that an earnest of his open-mindedness on tariff revision has been given in his support of the measure adopted at the present session of Congress to levy higher duties on dyestuffs as a means of securing necessary industries in the United States. The President considers his position, as here outlined, to be in the strictest accord with the avowed principles of his party.

The Tariff Commission is the instrumentality through which the President expects the Government to gather the facts needed for guidance in adjusting the tariff schedule. That would be perhaps the chief purpose of the Tariff Commission's suggested journey to Europe, though that would be only one phase of its inquiries. President Wilson is now as thoroughly convinced as anyone that America is not at the period of her destiny when free-trade ideas can be applied in our tariff making consistently with the necessities of revenue. It is an obvious fact, to which a section of the Democratic leaders, not including the President, persistently has closed its eyes, that all tariff duties in some degree protect the industries concerned. Tariffs protect, whether drawn with an eye to protection or to revenue, and the wisely drawn tariff law — the competitive tariff law — is that which balances revenue features with the nicest sensing of the needs of developing commerce and industry. It can be said that the President will study the report of the Tariff Commission with the view of formulating an adjustment of necessary tariff levies which will effect the fullest measure of development.

"There are many paths which lead up the mountainside, but when we reach the peak the same moon we shall see," says a proverb of Old Japan. How applicable it is to the present tariff discussion! Some one has called President Wilson's attention to the fact that fully 50 per cent of arguments among individuals about the tariff grow out of misunderstanding of isolated facts and not out of differences on fundamental principles. He does believe that a clear presentation of the facts relating to the conditions of competition between the United States and foreign countries will go far toward weeding out differences of opinion attributable to lack of information; so far that it will be possible to formulate a tariff policy for the United States which will command the support of an overwhelming majority of the people of the country regardless of partisan affiliations. The possibility of such an approximate agreement on a subject that hitherto has divided the electorate into two antagonistic sections is attributable in large measure (the President considers) to the development of independent thinking among the voters.

The great body of the people (Mr. Wilson believes) have made up their minds that the industries of the country ought not to be hampered by a too strict adherence to abstract tariff theories, but that the fullest measure of opportunity should be opened to them so long as the conferring of special privileges is avoided. On the other hand (as the President understands the public mind) there is the conviction that our industries ought not to be fattened to the point where apoplexy is threatened; but again, the conviction is just as clear that it would be the height of national folly to lower the entire range of tariff duties to such an extent that, coincidentally, the Government would be deprived of an important part of its accustomed revenue and the industries of all of their accustomed re-enforcement. So much for the President's views on the tariff, which relate solely to the defensive preparation of American business for the tests to come at the end of the war. The President believes that the aggressive and buoyant spirit of American business is such that it will be more concerned with offensive measures, with preparation to wade into the markets of the world, and to establish American supremacy there.

The President's policy includes numerous legislative and executive steps through which this preparation is to be accomplished. Most important of these is his plan to procure definitive authorization for American firms to co-operate for foreign-selling operations without regard to the provisions Of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The President recognizes that in the past the American Government has been somewhat provincial in its attitude toward this need of our export business. The war and the vigorous investigation by the Federal Trade Commission have orientated the President and the Government, however. Now it is realized that the great competitive strength of Germany and the other industrial nations of Europe in the past has been due in large measure to the freedom with which their industries were permitted to organize for purposes of foreign trade. In Europe individual companies of one nation did not need to meet ruinous competition of other nations. They could present a solid national front. This was accomplished through the organization of syndicates and cartels which have flourished for decades in every great industrial nation except the United States.

Set Business Free.

The President's understanding of prospective post-bellum conditions holds up to his mind the probability that hereafter American industry may have to compete not only with those solid national organizations, but with international organizations. It is because he faces this prospect that the President believes it is high time for the American Government to strike from our industries some of the shackles in which they have labored because the Sherman Law failed to authorize the needed and wholesome processes of co-operative business organization.

President Wilson's attitude toward business organization as a principle for domestic as well as foreign application is different from that which has determined the policy of many Governmental officers in the past. Then the Government was so much concerned with eradicating the flaws in our business structure that it gave no large measure of thought to developing business opportunities. Under the President's inspiration the Trade Commission idea has been evolved, whereby the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice has been prevented from flourishing its sword over the heads of business organizations, merely because of the size of these organizations. Mere bigness is not held to be cause for suspicion by the Trade Commission, which is now the chief instrumentality of enforcing the anti-trust laws.

The Trade Commission has encountered little difficulty in straightening out kinks in commercial organizations which involve violations of law because business men have been made to realize that the main concern of this body has been the promotion of growth and the development of opportunity.

The Tariff Commission will find many ways of being useful to the business world if the plans President Wilson has formed for it are followed. The war has developed new industries in the United States, notably the dyestuff industry. Great benefit can be conferred on industries of this character, the President believes, if the Tariff Commission studies their methods of operation and subsequently the methods of operation and the economies which obtain among the European nations, where these industries have been longest established and are most efficient.

The President expects the Commission to go into the field of foreign tariff duties and to convey to American export organizations complete data as to the existence and effects of discriminating duties, commercial treaties, and preferential rates; the effects of export bounties and preferential transportation rates; and the effects of any special or discriminating privilege that may be used against the United States.

The scope of the Trade Commission's activities, according to the policy in the President's mind, includes the development of plans by which American business firms may best prepare themselves for the plunge into the international markets. For example the standardization of materials, manufacturing methods, and products, so that a uniformity of quality and price may be maintained in foreign markets, will obviate many of the difficulties experienced by American exporters in keeping up their historic endeavor to compete with one another. Another measure approved by the President is the development of a system of accounting which will enable the American business man to tell more accurately what it costs him to turn out his product. The President was surprised recently to learn from Federal Trade Commissioner Hurley that, whereas 50 per cent of German manufacturers can compute the exact cost of their products, only 10 per cent of American manufacturers can do so.

In general, the President intends that the Trade Commission shall apply itself vigorously to methods of reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of production.

The President is wholly committed to plans for maintaining and developing the transportation facilities at the disposal of the nation's business. His views on the need for an American merchant marine such as will assure American manufacturers means of conveying their products to foreign markets without depending on other nations, are now well known, and the shipping bill which embodies his ideas is now before Congress. The public is not so well informed, however, as to the President's attitude respecting the conservation and development of our domestic transportation facilities, namely, the railroads. With a view to obtaining the real facts about the difficulties confronting our great railroad companies the President has brought about the creation of a Congressional Commission to make a thoroughgoing inquiry into all phases of railroad problems. The President does not ignore the fact that in many instances the State Railroad Commissions and the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission have worked at cross purposes, thereby seriously retarding the development of the roads as national utilities. The President's mind is open on the subject of Federal incorporation and he will embody in his constructive business policy the conclusions which may seem justified by the investigation of the Congressional Commission.

Welcomes "Dollar Exchange"

There are many other phases of the railroad problem, however, regarding which the President desires the public to be better informed so that the Government may be enabled more fully to do its duty by the roads. These relate to credits and methods of expansion, as well as to schemes of regulation; and most important of all, to the spirit in which the public is to approach all questions relating to the welfare of the common carriers.

Another phase of the President's plans centers around his desire to provide means of assuring to the country the most efficient exertion of its great accumulated financial strength at the end of the war.

The United States has more gold than either group of the European belligerents and her financial position is incomparably stronger than that of any European nation with which we are shortly to engage in competition. But the President faces the fact that this new and happy condition has been created by the war and that plans must now be evolved for expanding our credit structure if the nation's industries are to reap the full benefits of our great financial strength when peace comes. The President believes that one of the measures which should be taken toward this end is the establishment of joint agencies of the Federal reserve banks in Europe as soon as sufficiently stable conditions are restored there. He also favors the establishment of such agencies in South America. It is his policy further to encourage American banking institutions to establish foreign branches in South America, where American trade is endeavoring to establish new footholds, and in general to adopt the most liberal attitude permissible while observing the spirit of the Federal Reserve act. The development of "dollar exchange" he contemplates with real enthusiasm.

The Government Must Help Business.

The President's policy may be summarized in the statement that he desires the Government to assume the role of the vigorous and robust friend of American business men in their endeavors to cope with competitors from other nations. This general statement covers not only the measures which have been discussed in this article and the holding of financial conferences between the United States and countries with which our trade may be expanded, but other concrete ideas for legislative enactments and executive acts which will promote the same purpose.

The President believes that the measures which his administration has taken for conserving and energizing American labor are part and parcel of the policy which I have been permitted here to set forth.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 8.