238 THE IMPORTANCE OF PORT FACILITIES IN THE 



nearly so from the standpoint of the ship operator. Ship operators have had many les- 

 sons in the last few years that it is expensive to export where the ship is sent out in cargo 

 and returns in ballast — no imports available; just as the financier has found that it is expen- 

 sive^ — in fact, ruinous — to sell goods on credit where your customer, when bills become due, 

 asks for extensions of credit, and so on indefinitely. Much as a merchant desires to sell, 

 he loses this desire if he. is fairly well convinced that the customer cannot under any possible 

 conditions pay for the goods he has bought. 



The United States may be considered as a single, large merchant. We have a produc- 

 tive capacity in many lines beyond our requirements. We wish to dispose of this excess and 

 continue to do so, keeping our industrial population at work to their full capacity or near 

 capacity in producing. However, we only want to do this and continue to do this if we are 

 paid for what we sell. The only way we can be paid is by people outside of the United States 

 who buy and use our products, working and producing other products that we want and will 

 buy from them or practically exchange with them. If they will not work and produce, or 

 cannot work and produce, we not only cannot have a foreign trade but, I think, do not want a 

 foreign trade. Credits, not matter how long extended, are merely a distinct promise for fu- 

 ture foreign production, not alone sufficient to pay the accumulated debt in products but all 

 of their future purchases and interest on the credits besides. Therefore, while I think we want 

 to export, we also must want to import, and we must be especially careful not to export where 

 there is little or no chance of repayment. There is no use sending good money after bad. 



An analysis of this condition, I fear, will make many of us pause and conclude that, 

 irrespective of our personal interests and desires, we must look forward for some years to 

 come to a foreign trade much smaller than we would desire — a safe and conservative export 

 and import business of such a character that it will sustain and pay for itself and grow year by 

 year, and what the world has to ofifer us in this respect in purchases of our products on a 

 sound basis we must be in condition to compete for with foreign sellers more keenly than 

 has ever been the case before. This will involve not alone a matter of competitive price and 

 conditions of delivery but put us on our mettle as regards an adequate delivery service, 

 namely, a merchant marine. If we abandon the idea, we will end up, when trade is again 

 resumed on the pre-war scale, with our foreign competitors having both the trade and the 

 merchant marine. 



There are certain commodities and staples, and always will be, which we do not pro- 

 duce and must import, such as rubber, coffee, cocoa, sugar, etc., and also certain manufac- 

 tured articles and products which can be better or more advantageously secured from for- 

 eign sources that will be desirable imports. Eventually, with our constantly increasing popu- 

 lation, we will consume most of our agricultural products that we have been in the past 

 exporting, and we must, looking to the future, either expect to find outlets for our excess in- 

 dustrial producing capacity or else materially reduce this productive capacity, which in turn 

 means a material curtailment of our growth and prosperity as a nation. It cannot be too 

 strongly emphasized how important an American merchant marine, as well as proper port 

 and terminal facilities, will be in locating a successful solution of this very important problem. 



The whole matter of foreign trade, merchant marine, and port facilities is much in- 

 volved and very complex and is a single problem, not three separate ones. We must be cau- 

 tious and careful in our capital expenditures as regards productive plant, vessels, port works 

 and terminals. We will be very fortunate in most cases to be able to utilize even what we have 

 in part capacity for some years to come, and will have to scrutinize with the greatest care and 



