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Show GERMANY SEEKS AMERICAN METHODS. In Germany they are moving for a system of commercial agents as attaches at-taches to their consulates. It seems to be against the German Idea of dignity to have the consuls themselves as the business agents of their countrymen In general, but thai is what they want to have in their commercial attaches. The United States consular system Is w-hat has started this move In Germany. Ger-many. Our consuls keep an eye on the trade of the country where they are stationed, and report on opportunities for American Imports, and for the expansion ex-pansion of American trade. "In this special function," as a recent report has It, "the precedence for zeal and efficiency Is quite generally conceded to the consular service of the United States." It is therefore quite natural to read that the German trade pupbllcatlons urge the following of American methods; meth-ods; that . the new commercial agents "refrain Trom overindulgence In academic aca-demic reports," (a well-recognlzed weakness of the German clerkly official,) offi-cial,) "and devote their energies to the spocial task of -finding new markets for German goods, reporting exactly the way such merchandise should be made, marked, packed, shipped, and the price for which It should be offered." of-fered." In short, those German commercial com-mercial agents should become American Ameri-can In so far as It Is possible. The pre-eminence of the Americana In this field of consular aid to the export ex-port trade of their country, and the business sense displayed by the consuls con-suls Is not generally ascribed In Germany Ger-many "to any superior system of governmental gov-ernmental control," nor even to any regular training or instruction in the course they so well pursiie, but "to lndfvldual Initiative and industry, the quick, accurate grasp of a new-situation, and the ability to recognize opportunities oppor-tunities and turn them to practical account, which in Germany is regarded as distinctive attributes of American character." All of which Is eminently satisfactory to Americans to hear. It Is a bit of praise and Imitation (the sincere form of flattery) which should be balm to the wounded spirits of tho Europeanlzed Americans who have so much fault to find with our consular system, and who are so constantly moving to have It changed and made over Into a system sys-tem so like to that of which the Germans Ger-mans are tired and which they propose to make over on American lines, that-what that-what the Germans are discarding and what tho Europeanlzed Americans would have their country adopt, could not be told apart. |