Music Trade Review

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10
THE
MU3IO TRADE
REVIEW
Business Men Appreciating Uncle Sam's Labor.
HOW UNCLE SAM HELPS PIANO EXPORTERS
Effectiveness of the "Dollar Diplomacy" Policy in Increasing Our Export Business and
Gaining a Foothold for Our Products in Foreign Countries—What is Indicated by the
Protest Against the Plan to Abolish Government Bureau—The Manner in Which
Manufacturers and Exporters are Helped Interestingly Described by Waldon Fawcett—
Encouraging Foreign Trade in Business-like Manner.
A recent proposition to, in effect, abolish one
of the branches of the United States Government
which has been most instrumental in furthering our
foreign trade has stirred up official circles in
Washington and business circles throughout the
country to a really surprising degree. This move
that has so upset things is in accordance with the
policy of retrenchment and rigid economy which
has characterized the United States House of Rep-
resentatives during the past year. In this particu-
lar case the rather heroic remedy was applied of
eliminating a trade promotion agency by merely
failing to appropriate money for its continuance.
As a matter of fact, were this penny wise policy
followed out to its natural conclusion it would
mean the elimination, or the virtual incapacitating,
of not merely one, but two of the Federal institu-
tions which are most helpful to the Americans who
seek markets for their wares overseas. The two
institutions in question are the Bureau of Manu-
factures, a branch of the Department of Commerce
and Labor, and the Bureau of Trade Relations, one
of the most important divisions of the Department
of State. These two institutions are what might be
designated the newer or comparatively recent
year (although perhaps the future will tell a dif-
ferent story) have joined in a protest against any
backward step in this field.
Among the protests which have come to Con-
gressmen from organizations and individuals are
many from the leaders in the piano industry and
other branches of the music trades. Indeed, it is
doubtful if there is any one industry which might
be expected to suffer more than the music trades
were there a let-up just at this juncture in the
Charles
Nagel, U. S. Secretary of
and Labor.
The attitude of the business interests of the
country with regard to this threatened cutting
down of the annual appropriations for boosting
trade interests abroad is significant in one respect.
It indicates a very lively appreciation on the part
of business men of how much Uncle Sam is really
doing in behalf of sales promotion overseas. It
was not always thus. Time was, and not so very
many years ago, either, when a majority of Ameri-
can business men took little stock in the aid that
could be rendered by the Federal authorities. With-
out venturing any opinion as to how far they were
justified in this attitude, it may be noted that the
conditions were very different then from what
they are now.
When the Spanish-American War made the
United States a world power, and for several years
thereafter, the only help that the Government aimed
to give systematically to exporters was such as-
sistance as could be rendered through our Con-
sular Service abroad. Now there are four distinct
institutions, two of which rnake trade promotion
their sole object, whereas the other two, although
fraught with manifold responsibilities, specialize
above all else on those activities which are cal-
culated to nurture profitable barter and sale be-
tween American manufacturers and jobbers and
consumers in other parts of the world.
Work of Consular Service and Pan-American
Union.
Of these last-mentioned arteries of trade stimulus
one is, of course, the United States Consular Serv-
ice. And the Consular Service, be it emphasized, is
Commerce
American quest for foreign business. Only a few
months ago one of the Governmental institutions
now imperiled, the Bureau of Manufactures, con-
ducted a canvass of our consular officers in all parts
of the world to ascertain the headway made by
American pianos and other musical instruments and
the outlook for a further extension of this trade.
The results which have not as yet been officially
published would seem to indicate that the present
Copyright by Waldon Fawcett.
Wilbur J. Carr, Director of the U. S. Consular
Service.
mediums for enabling Uncle Sam to extend a
helping hand to the exporter. To abolish or seri-
ously cripple them would put us, in this respect,
back where we were some years ago—before the
National Government entered upon its present en-
ergetic method of promoting international'trade.
The Harm May Be Averted.
However, the harm is not yet clone and there is
a chance that it may be averted. Secretary of State
Knox, the champion of "dollar diplomacy," who
is keenly interested in the development of our for-
eign trade—particularly the trade with Central and
South America and the West Indies—has lost no
time in protesting against this curtailment of our
activities and has appealed to the business men of
the country to array themselves against those Con-
gressmen who take a narrow view of the situation.
Without, however, minimizing the work of Secre-
tary Knox and Assistant Secretary of State Wilson
in this crisis, it may be said that the remarkable
feature of the unexpected situation has been found
in the manner in which the business men of the
country have rallied to the cause. Not only ex-
porters in all lines, but even those manufacturers
who make scarcely a single foreign shipment in a
John
A Typical U. S. Consular Office—The Consulate-
General at Paris, France.
is really the psychological moment for a spurt in
the sale of American pianos abroad—the time of
the proverbial tide that leads on to victory. And,
of course, everybody in the music trades knows
how American talking machines and phonographs
are winning out in various e.xtensive foreign fields
—especially in Latin-America.
Barrett,
Director-General of the
American Union.
Pan-
a very different organization from what it was in
the days when the pioneers in our export trade be-
sought such aid as it could" give. I am well aware
that there are men of affairs in the music trades
and other lines who complain that our Consular
Service is not yet organized on the hard and fast
business basis that ought to obtain, but, be that as
it may, it is an unquestioned fact that a vast im-
provement had been made over the status of a
decade or two ago. The merit system has been in-
troduced to a considerable extent and the young
men who have latterly enlisted in the consular
corps have been drilled, ere departure for their
posts, in the forms of research and promotion work
that are calculated to enable them to give practical
aid to American firms in quest of foreign business.
Ranking with the Consular Service as one of the
older aids to international trade is the Pan-Ameri-
can Bureau. Only, if the truth be told, the Pan-
American Union in its present guise might much
more appropriately be classed with those newer
institutions, the Bureau of Manufactures and the
Bureau of Trade Relations. For the Bureau of
American Republics, as it was known in the old
days, was at that time, with all due respect, a more