356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Our great corporations have kd 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 evi- 

 denced 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 manu- 

 facturers 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 w\\h 

 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 adaptabi'ity 

 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. 



