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Show HOW TO KEEP PLANTS BUSY Co-operative Foreign Effort Should Keep Factories at 100 per cent Capacity. FORMS A BACKLOG Serious Handicaps Confronts U. S. International Trade in Meeting New Conditions Can Be Overcome. New Orleans, January 28. "Co-operative foreign effort would keep our factories running at 100 per cent of capacity.", said M. A. Oudin, Manager of the Foreign Department of the General Electric Company, of Schenectady, Sche-nectady, N. Y., in an address before the National Foreign Trade Convention Conven-tion here today. "Since export co-operation would lower the cost of distribution, and by the added output, the cost of production produc-tion as well," Mr. Oudin argued, "the home consumer in consequence would benefit to the extent that the manufacturers manu-facturers were able to reduce their unit cost." lie continued: "It is recognized as elementary that in order to obtain the quantity output out-put necessary the average manufacturer manufac-turer should endeavor to sell abroad a reasonable percentage of the total capacity of his plant, even if thesd sales do not carry the same profit as domestic sales. This business keep4 busy plants and men who oJhensIs4 would be idle. It forms a backlog in good years and lean, and acts "as i stabilizer to the more Important domestic do-mestic trade. However, the practice of selling abroad at lower prices than at home is quite generally followed by our European competitors. Laws Prohibit Co-operation. "The actual situation confronting American exporters Is, that there exists ex-ists in our statute books Federal laws which prohibit co-operation, although intended solely for the prosecution of the export trade of this country "This prohibition is effective notwithstanding not-withstanding that the exnort co-oner- ation may not be accompanied by unfair un-fair practices, may hot take in a preponderant pre-ponderant part of a given Industry, and may not be against the public interest. in-terest. "The written law which in its foreign for-eign aspect has not yet been judicially judicial-ly passed upon, Is not qualified by any exceptions unless co-operation by non-competing non-competing interests may be regarded as an exception. "In other words, the existing antitrust anti-trust laws, enacted primarily for the benefit of the domestic consumer, by prohibiting monopoly and restraint of trade, and by increasing competition between manufacturers and producers at home, are equally applied to the regulation of our foreign commerce. Exporting Methods Impaired. "The net results are an Impaired efficiency ef-ficiency of our exporting methods and 'Thu creation of destructive competition competi-tion among American manufacturers in their foreign trade. "The serious handicaps confronting cur International trade in meeting new conditions can be overcome, and a very important Impulse to our foreign for-eign commerce can be imparted by the creation of a widespread interest in and the formation of export organizations organ-izations and combinations and other forms of co-operative effort "Pending the removal of the incubus incu-bus of fear of the application of the anti-trust law to the regulation of our foreign trade we can expect few or no additional associations to be formed, form-ed, nor any decided and general cooperative co-operative movement on the part of our manufacturers. Unless the restraining re-straining laws are modified so as to exclude their application to export trade, co-operative measures by American Amer-ican manufacturers for meeting the now international conditions after the war will not be practicable and must largely remain in the region of the theoretical discussion." |
