376 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the elimination of German competition.) Moreover, he discovers that 

 practically the entire local trade in picks and shovels has been in the 

 hands of two firms, one representing a German manufacturer, the other 

 representing a British manufacturer. The German firm is out of busi- 

 ness, but the English house is on the ground and prepared to supply 

 the limited extra demands made on it through the failure of its German 

 rival. Eobinson's representative learns, therefore, what many of our 

 manufacturers are learning, that while the time is ripe for a general 

 campaign of education and promotion, the prospects of securing large 

 immediate results are more remote. 



I sometimes wonder whether we are not apt to give too great promi- 

 nence to so-called international competition and to forget the more 

 active and practical competition of the individual. Is it not, after all, 

 Peter Smith & Company of Liverpool, and the Actiengesellschaft Hans 

 Fleischmann, of Hamburg, that Eobinson & Company must consider, 

 with all due references to the possible competition of Jones & Com- 

 pany, whose factory is perhaps just across the street. 



" How can I sell in competition with English and German manu- 

 facturers when they pay no more for their raw material and less for 

 labor than I do ? " said a hosiery manufacturer to me recently. " I 

 give it up," was my reply, "but a manufacturer in your line, whose 

 factory is not two miles from yours, is doing so." And when I pro- 

 duced the proof, his only reply was essentially that of the countryman 

 who saw a girafEe for the first time — " They ain't no such animal," 



Competition is largely a personal matter, and he who wins is not 

 necessarily the one whose goods are the cheapest. Salesmanship, 

 honest}^, liberality, courtesy, fair treatment, persistency, compliance with 

 specifications as to packing and shipping, which may at first glance 

 seem trivial and unnecessary, but are often most important, are all 

 great factors, not only in winning trade in foreign markets, but also in 

 keeping it when once won. 



AMEEICAN MUNICIPAL PEOBLEMS AND THE EUEOPEAN 



WAE 



By CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF 



NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



THEEE was great uncertainty in August and September of the year 

 1914 as to the immediate and ultimate effect of the European 

 cataclysm. No one was willing to hazard a guess as to what was going 

 to be the outcome of those events following the outbreak of the war, 

 which unsettled at least for the time the whole machinery of inter- 

 national life. There was a prevalent conviction that the old founda- 

 tions had been swept away, and there was no assurance as to what were 



