Show Isolation Gone Mad During the past twelve months vo voices ces have been heard to the effect that foreign trade is a negligible negligible negligible neg neg- factor in the restoration of our domestic prosperity Ninety five per cent of ot our existing existing existing ex ex- business is domestic they say why not face the curtains and center upon the home market market mar mar- ket leet And so they advocate a closer drawing of the barriers to exclude the goods of other lands This is the philosophy of economic defeatism It is isolation gone mad It has no more justification economically than the advocacy of ofa ofa a n return to the era of the kero- kero sine lamp and the four wheeled buggy Despite the attractiveness eness of our our domestic market it must be remembered remembered remembered re re- re- re that 92 per cent of the worlds world's population lives outside the United States and is poorly supplied with the things we best I produce Our international po po- today demands more analysis analysis analysis an an- more careful consideration and greater dependence upon facts than ever before in the history of commerce This is the opinion of an author auth auth- or on international trade And it itis itis itis is an opinion that is gradually finding its echo in the minds of the general public People are starving when we have wheat to burn people are cold when wool and cotton are a drug on the mar mar- ket Only by an intelligent in interchange interchange interchange in- in of goods between nations nations nations na na- na- na can commercial stability and prosperity be attained If we shut shutout out our foreign goods which our people offer a market we will be shut out of their markets markets either either by foreign retaliatory tariffs or because their people have no money with which to buy The demise of our international trade would mean the loss of liv- liv directly of several million American families and work a great hardship on many millions more Stimulated foreign trade is to a greater than most of us yet realize a n vital factor in the solution of our domestic ties |