OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE IN 1901. 537 



Necessary Aids to Future Growth. 

 It may be said, indeed, that we have hardly more than entered 

 upon a novitiate in fitting ourselves for international competition. 

 The establishment of sample warehouses and agencies at important 

 trade centers, the employment of commercial travelers conversant with 

 the language, customs, trade usages of particular countries; the devel- 

 opment of adequate banking and transportation facilities; the adop- 

 tion of proper methods of packing; the offering of more liberal credits 

 — these are some of the conditions of the full utilization of our oppor- 

 tunities in foreign markets. If to these is added provision for a 

 larger volume of exchange with countries which, to a greater or less 

 extent, are now excluded from our markets, the real strength of our 

 competitive powers will be developed. 



Increasing Popular Interest in Foreign Trade. 

 It is encouraging to note that the people of the United States are 

 becoming more and more sensible of the value of foreign trade and 

 the importance of intelligent and well-directed efforts for its expan- 

 sion. The growth of popular comprehension and approval is illus- 

 trated not only by the establishment of commercial museums, the 

 organization of export associations, the demand for the creation of 

 a separate department of the Federal Government having special 

 charge of industry and commerce, and for the improvement of the 

 consular service as an agency of commercial expansion, but also by 

 the fact that our educational institutions, one after another, are rap- 

 idly adopting commercial instruction as an important feature of their 

 work. Even the ordinary high schools are engrafting commercial 

 geography upon their courses, and during the past year, the Bureau 

 of Foreign Commerce has received applications from teachers and 

 scholars in many parts of the country for copies of monthly and other 

 consular reports as aids in this branch of study. The requests for 

 information as to trade conditions in foreign countries from manufac- 

 turers and exporters have multiplied rapidly, and it may now be said 

 that there is hardly an important business concern in the United States 

 having a present or prospective interest in foreign trade which does 

 not avail itself of the data furnished by the consular service. 



Conditions in Undeveloped Markets. 

 The relation of the economic forces of the United States to those of 

 Europe may be taken as the surest index to the probable future of our 

 trade with the rest of the world ; for it must be evident that, if we can 

 continue to compete with European industries in their home markets, 

 we shall have but little to fear from their rivalry in the neutral or 

 undeveloped markets, where we would meet them on an equal footing. 



