382 ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIAM C. REDFlELD. 



but the question is nationally large. What prevails in New England to-day 

 but wrath, because that section has failed to be able to control its own transit 

 facilities? They are in the hands of those who are considered alien to the 

 territory, whose interest may or may not lie in developing it as its people 

 wish to have it developed. Boston is objecting to what is in its view a for- 

 eign control of its traffic. It is in a small way what we face in our inter- 

 national trade. 



But there have been changes in this international trade, because of 

 which the subject takes on more pressing interest. In the discussion before 

 you of 1909 it was suggested that our "export trade cannot be attributed 

 to our skill as manufacturers. " This is no longer true. To-day the largest 

 single item in our exports is manufactured and partly manufactured goods, 

 and these have become nearly or quite half of our total exports. If we in- 

 clude among them manufactured food products such as flour, which are, of 

 course, as truly manufactured as are other articles, then our manufactured 

 goods represent more than half. In any case our food products, of which 

 we used to be the world's vendors, have sunk to a minor relative place. It 

 is true now that many American factories could not run full time without 

 their foreign trade. Some factories here sell most of their products abroad. 

 These exports of manufactures will exceed eleven hundred millions in value 

 this year — equal to two-thirds of our total exports of three years ago. The 

 facts of our foreign trade for the month of October just past are even more 

 striking, for in that month our total international trade exceeded four hun- 

 dred and thirty-two miUions, or at the rate greatly in excess of five thousand 

 millions per year. From these startling facts much hope may be drawn for : 

 First, the value of our seaborne traffic is impressing itself upon more of our 

 people. It is coming to have a greater money value to more of us. Second, 

 it has destroyed certain myths, which are some of the assumptions of which 

 we have spoken. The destruction of these myths forms the third group of 

 facts for us to consider. 



It is no longer true that goods made in America always cost more because 

 of the higher rate of wages paid here. Go around the world with an open 

 eye to-day and this old tradition will fall before the fact that in every city 

 American goods are freely sold, either because we manufacturers are chari- 

 tably bestowing them upon the foreigners or because they cost less for the ■ 



