AiRiL 1. 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



339 



The Trade Press and Our Present Problems of Business. 



Xolabic Address by Edivurd A'. Hurley. I'icc-Cliainiuin. l-cdcrat Trudc Commission, Bclor 

 Press Association. 



the Nezc York Trade 



IT affords me great pleasure to address thai branch of the 

 1-ourth Estate which speaks directly to, and for, the manu- 

 facturers and business men of our great country. The trade 

 journal, as the complement of the trade association, is an in- 

 strument in enforcing that collective effort which is ari essential 

 of modern industry ; while the trade press as a whole is a prime 

 factor in establishing fraternity among all groups of business 

 men. and thus uniting them in the common work of achieving 

 and maintaining national prosperity. 



PREP.\REDXESS, TRAIIE AND MODERN METHODS. 



Industrial preparedness, foreign trade, and more efficient 

 methods of manufacture seem to be the most important ques- 

 tions before the American people today. You are vitally con- 

 cerned. Your trade papers are devoting pages to the necessity 

 of improving conditions in our factories, for the purpose of 

 getting our share of the trade in manufactured goods that are 

 sold in foreign markets. There is no question that your efforts 

 will be productive of results. 



I sometimes wonder if the efforts of )-our editorial writers, 

 and your technical experts, are appreciated by the average 

 manufacturer engaged in the industry which the trade paper 

 represents. I do know that any manufacturer or employer who 

 does not read the trade paper representing the industry in 

 which he is engaged is not keeping abreast with the times. It 

 is impossible for him to know what his competitors are doing ; 

 what new development is being made in the improvement of 

 his product ; what progress is being made in new inventions and 

 designs ; and the factory or company that does not have nu- 

 merous trade journals scattered through its plant, so that em- 

 ployes may read them and keep well informed, is not a very 

 progressive concern. 



THE STARTING POINT IN PUBLICITV, 

 Progressive business men realize that trade-journal advertis- 

 ing produces results. If a manufacturer or business man will 

 first start advertising in his trade journals, and become edu- 

 cated to the advantage of good copy — paying special attention, 

 of course, to reaching his dealer — his ne.xt step, if his product 

 will warrant it, is a national advertising campaign ; but the 

 first step is his trade journal or business magazine. 

 ASSOCIATION WORK. 



Trade associations that are putting forth a special effort to 

 improve their systems of cost accounting, bettering their pro- 

 cesses of manufacture, obtaining credit information, and en- 

 deavoring to improve the welfare of their employes, will be 

 important factors in our country's development in the next few- 

 years. It is recognized that individual groups which are work- 

 ing intelligently through trade associations and trade journals, 

 will embrace the industries that can compete in price and qual- 

 ity in the markets of the world. 



-All of us are talking a great deal these days about mobilizing 

 American resources. Mobilizing means simply organizing to 

 achieve a common purpose. Many manufacturers seem prone 

 to associate mobilization with expansion ; and I venture to sug- 

 gest that you gentlemen of the trade press profitably may de- 

 vote some attention to the psychology of this error, with a view 

 to getting the true situation indelibly impressed on the minds 

 of the man of the business world. 



EXPANSION BY EFFICIENCY. 



I hope, now that our business has become normal and our 

 factories arc running on full time, that our manufacturers will 

 place capacity ahead of expansion. I hope that, instead of 

 rushing to build additions to their plants, they will ascertain 

 that their present equipment has reached the maximum of day 

 work, and then develop the night shift so that every piece of 

 machinery will be working to its limit. We have an example 

 of what American manufacturers can do along this line in the 

 automobile industry. 



We should get away from that old-fashioned notion that the 

 night crew is lacking in efficiency, and that its workmanship is 

 not up to the standard. 



THE CAPACITY PROBLEM. 



There has been over-anxiety to enlarge our industrial plants 

 before we have worked our present equipment to its capacity. 



Consequently, when there is depression in business in this coun- 

 try, we have an overproduction for our home requirements, 

 and, with no large foreign markets for our surplus of manu- 

 factured goods, we immediately start to cut prices on the plea 

 that such action is necessary in order to keep our large plants 

 running. This always results in a general demoralization of 

 our industries. 



If we can stop this overproduction of our industries we will 

 have a surplus of money to invest in foreign countries, instead 

 of having millions tied up in plants that are running three 

 days a week to supply our domestic market, with no returns 

 on the investment. 



TODAY'S INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY. 



With present business and profits holding through this year 

 our industrial concerns will reach that commanding position 

 which is given by great and ready cash resources. Among 

 some of our larger concerns this position already has been 

 attained. The United States Steel Corporation began the pres- 

 ent year w^ith $105,000,000 in cash. This largest of our in- 

 dustrial companies never before reported cash holdings in ex- 

 cess of $68,000,000. Other concerns, especially those engaged 

 directly in war business, have immense cash holdings. 



Our industrial concerns, in short, are fast getting into con- 

 dition to finance greater business than ever before, not only at 

 home but abroad. They are getting to be able to make con- 

 tracts, say, with South American countries, on a basis never 

 before possible to Americans, and to do it without arranging 

 with bankers in special ways. 



FOR FOREIGN TRADE EXPANSION. 



One of the commanding holds upon foreign trade which the 

 German dyestuffs manufacturers had, before the war set a 

 barrier against them, was their immense power in working 

 capital, which enabled them to extend credits and to conduct 

 all sorts of aggressive campaigns to get world business. We 

 are getting into position to profit from this example. You are 

 vitally interested in presenting to the practical business men 

 who read your papers, facts and suggestions that will aid in 

 getting the greatest possible profit out of the situation that is 

 developing. 



There is no question more interesting to ponder, at this time, 

 in considering the betterment of business conditions, than that 

 of foreign trade. It is a most important question to our coun- 

 try. Our mines and forests, and our factories are turning out 

 products for which there is a demand abroad, and it is not 

 merely a question of increasing this demand, but the question 

 of creating conditions that will enable us to get good prices 

 for our wares, and produce them at the lowest possible cost, 

 that should particularly command our attention. 



Conservation is the handmaiden of prosperity so far as our 

 foreign trade is concerned. Right here I want to emphasize 

 the fact that the owners of our vast natural resources are the 

 trustees of the American people. You gentlemen of the trade 

 press should make it ring in their ears like a cathedral chime. 

 When they sell their products at ridiculously low prices, the 

 lumber, the copper and the coal that come from nature's store- 

 houses — they are violating their trust, for ruinous trade spells 

 a waste that brings nothing in exchange. Let me call your 

 attention to a few facts pertaining to our foreign trade in its 

 relation to natural resources, and to facts concerning the meth- 

 ods that are employed by some of our competitors in the com- 

 merce of the world, to prevent waste. 



FOREIGNERS CONTROL AMERICAN PRICES. 



Frankfort-on-the-Main is the home of a combination of 

 German metal buyers who control the w-orld market for copper, 

 lead, zinc, and various other metals. It is a family affair, and 

 has subsidiary companies in England, France, Belgium, Switz- 

 erland, .'\ustralia, Africa, Mexico, and the United States. It 

 owns zinc mines in Oklahoma, smelters in Colorado, and con- 

 trols one of the greatest metal trading companies in New York 

 City. This giant organization with its affiliations dominates 

 the metal markets of the world. Time and again it has de- 

 pressed the price of our copper. It is a notorious fact that it 

 has compelled our producers to sell copper to foreign buyers 

 at lower prices than to our home users. The combination has 

 been able to do this in spite of the fact that this country sup- 



