Music Trade Review

THE NEW YORK.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PUBLIC LIBRARY
AST O*, LET?OZ AND
TILDA.N FOUNDATIONS
'1
REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXVII. No. 14
Published Every Saturdaylby Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Oct. 5, 1918
Single Copies 10 Cents
$2.00 Per Year
The Development of Our Export Trade
T
H E question of export trade and its development is one of prime consideration these days. An immense
volume of foreign trade has come our way, not because our manufacturers have worked especially hard
for it, but rather because our competitors have been forced to withdraw from the markets of the world.
Orders for pianos and players reaching our manufacturers from all parts of the world have assumed
surprisingly large figures, and, better still, the reports reaching us from foreign countries indicate that American
musical instruments are giving a great deal of satisfaction. This means that the markets which they are reach-
ing can be permanently held—provided our manufacturers get busy and prepare to hold them.
This is not probable or possible if there is a continuation of the haphazard export methods that existed
before the war. Success in this field means organization. It means methodical, intelligent study of the
markets of the world. It means keeping in touch with live export organizations, or the formation of an export
department by the individual shipper, or else the organization of one under the auspices of our national or local
trade associations, if we are to take real advantage of the opportunity which now has come our way to establish
ourselves permanently in the export markets of the world.
It will be conceded that to-day we cannot ship all the pianos or other manufactured products for which
orders are on hand, very largely because we have not the ships. But the ships are coming, for as Edward N.
Hurley, chairman of the United States Shipping Board, recently said: "We are now building a real merchant
marine; American banks are establishing foreign branches; the American ship and the American dollar are
going to work together, and the more attention we pay to this great field of business the harder they will
work for us.
"Shipbuilding for w r ar purposes has made a tremendous appeal to the American imagination. We must
now put our merchant marine into the nation's thought in just the same way. These are the nation's ships.
They will increase prosperity for people in the corn belt even more than those on the seaboard. They will
serve the farmer and consumer as well as the manufacturer and exporter. When we get the American mer-
chant marine into the daily thought of every producer, and our boys and girls play with shipping toys, and the
American youth consider the sea in choosing a career, then we shall have something upon which to build
foreign trade, foreign exchange, foreign investment.
"Ships are the rallying point round which we must pull all this business together, and now is the time for
every American to begin studying our merchant ships and all that goes with them in the way of ocean delivery
service, foreign exchange and investments, sales of American products for the out voyage, and purchases of
raw materials for the return trip. We will shortly have the ships. It is time to acquire the knowledge of ships
which will enable us to utilize our new merchant fleet for the service of this and other nations after the de-
mands of war have ceased."
After the war we will have splendid opportunities to command a large share of the world's trade, if we
organize now; if we get rid of inefficient methods; if we talk less and act more. It must not be overlooked that
Germany has an organized export system that this country must face and fight with as much determination
as we are now showing in fighting the enemy on the Western front.
Big advantages have come to our manufacturers voluntarily in the way of export trade. We have the
markets, and after the war we can supply them with goods. Everything is in our favor, provided there exists
efficient organization and untiring efforts on the part of our manufacturers. If they are prepared to take
advantage of a most remarkable situation they will find America prepared after the war with all the ships
necessary to export her commerce to all parts of the world. This entire subject of export trade is one that
deserves the most serious consideration of the trade, not when the war is over, but now.
L