Our great corporations have led the way in masterful fashion. They have the resources in men and money to master any problem. It is, however, neither fair nor wise to leave each manufacturer however small, to seek foreign markets individually and unaided. The one supremely great American corporation, the government itself, must do for the innumerable smaller manufacturers what our greatest corporations alone are able to do for themselves. We must follow the example of Germany and other of the more successful European countries.
May I illustrate by a personal experience? For years I have been provoked or amused by government and other bulletins announcing that some lone firm in the Argentine, or South Africa, wants a plow or a wagon. Knowing that a plow perfectly adapted to one district may be worthless a hundred miles away; knowing of thousands of dealers in this country who want plows and just what specifications are needed in each case; with full information at hand as to financial standing and other particulars, I have no sufficient reason to interest myself in this lone individual on the other side of the world and I take no chances of annoying mistakes and failures.
There are two or three hundred implement-makers in the United States. Working as they do in the greatest agricultural country in the world, they rightly excel all others in inventive skill, as is partly evidenced by their present exports and by their government estimate that the American crops are produced at a saving of $700,000,000 annually over the cost of raising a like crop of fifty years ago. Our implement manufacturers are driving men off the farms by labor-saving machinery faster than intensive cultivation is bringing them on. This is one reason, but only one, why our population is increasing relatively much faster in the cities than in the country. One of these implement manufacturers wisely sent to the Argentine his most trusted designer and shop man. He secured splendid orders and perfect specifications, with one fatal exception. He failed to note that the plows were drawn from the foreheads of oxen the "hitch" being around the base of the horns. Consequently the plows were pulled out of the ground and the company lost the entire shipment and hundreds of dollars besides, and only with difficulty retained the good will of its customers. It is such experiences that bring upon us the many criticisms about packing and "making what the customer wants."
I have said we must follow the European example. There are only four very great manufacturing nations; England, Germany, France and the United States. Of these four the United States is the greatest in the volume of its product and, in my judgment, even in adaptability and grasp, but the other countries are organized for foreign trade, while we are not. Generally speaking, we have not wanted it. We have legislated to hinder and prevent it rather than to develop it. We have.
