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Show BUY. AMERICAN! Newspaper dispatches the other day to the effect that a party of Germans were coming to America to buy $5,-000,000 $5,-000,000 worth of American foods has caused one internationalist to say that when these visitors hear about the "Buy American" movement they are apt to go back home empty handed and "Buy German." This is typical of the argument put forth by internationalists to the effect that Uncle Sam ought to spend his money abroad instead of at home. The fact is that the "Buy American" was j the last of the nationalist purchasing j movement to be started in the leading j nations of the world. There have benj "Buy French" and "Buy German" movements in existence for a long time. And the "Buy British" movement move-ment of old John Bull is the most complete and most perfect now in existence. If you don't believe it just pick up a British magazine and look over the advertising. Every civilized nation is now attempting to produce at home as much of what it consumes as is humanly possible. It is only in the United States where there is much opposition to a 1 "buy at home" movement. The reason i is that we have so many international financiers and clackers here who are more interested in the welfare of Europe, Eu-rope, for selfish reasons, than they are in the prosperity of the United States. It is not to be supposed for one moment mo-ment that representatives of German concerns are coming to the United States to buy fruits and other foodstuffs food-stuffs which could 'be produced prac-Itically prac-Itically in Germany. They are coming ' for the things they cannot produce at home not for near beer and pretzels. No nationalist and protectionist expects ex-pects to buy American produced goods only. He is intelligent enough to realize that a great many things we use, cannot be produced in the United States and must be bought abroad. He has no objection to foreign for-eign trade of this kind. What he does object to is the purchasing of foreign commodities which can and are produced pro-duced on American farms and in American Am-erican factories. Every dollar which we spend for a competitive foreign article means a dollar less for the American producer. What is the use of sending a dollar to Europe in the hope that the man who gets it may send it back and spend it here, when by buying an American piece of goods we can be sure that the dollar is spent here and goes to the upbuilding of American agriculture or American business ? Sure, let us buy abroad. But let us only buy those things which we can't produce at home. Most of non-competitive articles which we import are luxuries. We can buy more of them from our foreign friends if our own people are producing and selling in the great American market the things , which are produced in America. |