American Railways and Export Trade

Abstract

trap than his neighbor, the world will find him and beat a path to his door. And to this it might be added that, even though the mouse-trap be but a common one, its maker will set his feet upon strange ways only when the number of his traps exceeds neighborhood demands. In short, until a producer of goods is driven by circumstance to seek distant markets, he sits at home and, waiting, gives slight regard to those agencies upon which reliance must be placed for the transportation of his wares to the door-step of the buyer. Happily situated, such a producer may without risk to himself ignore the problem of carriage-or say, to parallel the legal maxim, Provideat emptor. But those days of calm indifference in the life of American industry are drifting rapidly into the golden past, as is evidenced by the trend of our export trade during the half-century just ended. At the opening of that period foodstuffs and crude materials contributed almost four-fifths of the value of our exports, while semiand finished manufactures accounted for but one-fifth: many millions abroad depended upon the United States for cotton and for grains. Yet our manufactures now contribute almost half, while foodstuffs and crude materials, despite the continuance of great cotton exports, do little more than maintain a parity. And every sign points toward a further decrease in the volume of those exports for which the world's reliance was once in us, with a corresponding increase in the volume of those which ust meet keen competition in every market where offered. In consequence of this change, the United States may no longer wait complacently for a materials-hungry world to seek out a path to the door; instead, we must discover means of placing goods in the world market with expedition and at minimum cost. To accomplish this dual purpose effort must be directed steadily and thoughtfully toward reducing production expense without impairment of quality, and effort must be made to move the