| Show ota ur government jovern ment how it operates by william Bruc bruckart kari HUNTING THE MARKETS IT T IS untrue to say that commerce knows no barriers yet it must be ex explained PI that it knows no barrier insofar its as the age old law of supply and demand Is concerned where the demand Is sufficient clent there commerce will flow just as surely as water seeks its own level hence a great commercial and industrial du people if they are to remain iso eo must be kept acquainted with where that demand Is unless they aro are apprised and apprised quickly of the existence of a market there Is a very real danger that some enterprising group elsewhere will become the early bird that catches the worm without fear of contradiction I 1 think it can be said the fact that american export trade has captured so eo much of the world trade has been bee n attributable to the ever watchful eye of the bureau of foreign and don domestic lestic commerce in this unit of the great department of commerce has centered the work of keeping a finger on the worlds business pulse it has known vie the intimate heartbeat of many a lit tle known trade corner it has been informed by letter by cable by radio of what those needs are or tire are expected to be the information it has gained has been quickly spread to all interested parties in this country for instance regularly the bureau makes public reports from the rubber estates of ceylon with equal regularity it receives and disseminates the latest details of the bradford wool prices again it receives and passes to the trade here the facts about the newest tariff decrees of every country that occupies a position of importance in our export market barkef and that just about covers the entire world taking things chronologically let us examine first into the methods employed by the government in getting this information leaving to other articles later an exposition of what Is done with the facts by the bureau and by the citizens of the nation for whom they are gathered there Is what Is called in a general term the foreign service of the united states that corps comprises representatives senta tives of the department of state as well as the department of commerce the department of commerce men imen obviously are trade men those of the state department may not be so BO classified for some of them many I 1 of them in fact have other duties that are more important to the executive department which they serve in every important capital there la Is an official attached to the embassy or legation who Is called a commercial in addition there Is stationed at same post a trade commissioner the former Is a state department man while the latter Is strictly what his title implies impale s trade commissioners are assigned as well to many commercial and industrial centers in addition to all of those mentioned thero there are consuls and vice consuls galore literally Ilter ally scores of them each of these individuals has been trained to examine the economic and financial conditions of the territory under his supervision each has overlooked no opportunity to study the trade needs the market potentialities and appraise the problems related to the selling of american products and buying tor for american consumption they will know for example whether the railways of brazil are going to need additional rubber hose for passenger car cleansing whether the land tax in spain Is going to work a hardship on holdings there of american corporations whether the teak production of slam siam Is rising or declining or whether some nation Is promoting an industry of moment in the production of carbon black or other chemical to show another phase of their work let me call to attention a specific instance the spanish throne was tottering american investments in spain while not as large as they are in some other countries approached pro ached the question in the mind of every person interested either through his own holdings or the holdings of a corporation in which he was stockholder was what ear effect act that political condition would have on his money the trade commissioner and the consuls were sending dally daily dispatches to washington relating every deve development 1 on which they could gain information when the monarchy fell and it a do de facto government was set up those dispatches did not cease indeed they came faster than ever the result waa as that officials of the department of commerce knew almost instantly what difficulties faced the american investor the american exporter or the american importer and let it be cald here that they had a veritable deluge of inquiries concerning them not all of the facts thus gathered are handled with that celerity more often the information Is assembled slowly methodically carefully from all of the sources public and private to which an official representative has necess access statistics are quoted fully and a picture drawn from them to make the as accurate and BB as simple as it Is possible to obtain that the american in touch with the department of commerce may nave ava available tUble for his guidance all of at the details any one of them may be viall 0 1923 newspaper ulon |
