section is invading the residence section, either using awkward old residences, or tearing down and building anew. This winter a block of splendid substantial houses worth many thousand dollars was torn away near the University of Pennsylvania to make room for another university building. That great university with 5,000 students on the campus has outdoor space for one football or baseball game at a time, leaving the other 993 per cent without the possibilities of outdoor athletics at that time. Thus the city has swamped itself, and its institutions, as all growing cities do where every building operation and every unit of growth is part of the heterogeneous individual effort. The supreme example of this waste is perhaps shown by the subway, that fearfully expensive kind of construction that never should have been. The suburbs of a growing city are successively swamped by new uses. Because the people are expecting in a short time to sell them for building purposes, the land is held for high prices and the chief occupation of the land that should be in crops is the support of "for sale" signs. Around Garden City is a belt of farms and playgrounds, which, owing to the fact that it is definitely set apart for these uses, has and can have no sale value, in which respects it resembles our parks.

The most significant part of the whole thing is that it has been done by the application of existing practices and existing laws with existing human science. Most attempts at social reconstruction have to await a conversion of the majority to a new point of view, and if the dreams of the socialist come true, we must also develop an entirely new system and type of business administration. In contrast to that millennial process, a garden city like Letchworth, England, can be built now in any well-chosen location. Any group of capitalists with constructive imagination and good business ability can start in and do it under existing law. As to its areal aspects -there is plenty of room along the Delaware River for all the industrial population now near it (and much more) to be so situated that they could avail themselves of all the principles involved in Garden City and have the best access to the harbor. They now have very

poor access to it.

If our urban people lived in such cities as Garden City it would beyond a doubt reduce the cost of living, increase wealth through by-in lustry, increase pleasure through the possibilities of recreation,

increase efficiency through increased health. The land speculator alone would lose-lose his present much too widespread opportunity to take something and give nothing in return. Something for nothing is a process that is variously regarded according to our social enlightenment.

THE ATTITUDE OF BUSINESS TOWARDS FOREIGN

TRADE

BY EDWARD EWING PRATT, PH.D.,

Chief, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, D. C.

The great European war will bring about not only large changes in the map of Europe but also tremendous changes in the industrial and commercial alignments of the world. The United States has been gathered up by the European explosion and projected into the world's affairs and into the world's markets in an entirely unexpected manner. The entire industrial and commercial trend of the United States has been altered. Great commercial and industrial opportunities confront us and beckon us on. It is a question, however, whether business is prepared to take advantage of these opportunities.

The American business community may be divided into two camps. One camp has for its slogan and motto the "home market.” The other camp has for its slogan and motto "foreign trade." These two terms "home market" and "foreign trade" represent two highly contrasted attitudes towards the commercial and industrial future of the United States. In the "home market" group are those who, in the face of present opportunities to extend our trade into foreign markets, point out the large advantages of domestic trade and who are unable to see the advantages of developing a foreign market. In the "foreign trade" group, on the other hand, are to be found wide-awake, ambitious and imaginative business men who are looking forward to the expansion of their trade to all parts of the world.

There are in the present situation vast opportunities not only in the foreign markets but in the home market as well. The United States has been a very large importer of commodities manufactured in other countries. Since the beginning of the war the principal manufacturing countries of the world have ceased to manufacture for export to any considerable degree, and we find ourselves in urgent need of certain kinds of manufactured articles. We now find that we can no longer purchase them in sufficient quantities from

European nations. Here are many opportunities for the extension of American enterprise in the "home market," and if the great European war does nothing else than demonstrate to the American manufacturer the necessity of self-sufficiency and independence of other nations, it will have rendered the United States a service. For example, during 1914, we imported over thirty-five million dollars' worth of silk goods, over seventy million dollars' worth of cotton goods, over eighty-two million dollars' worth of manufactured fibers, and over one hundred and eighteen million dollars' worth of chemicals, drugs and other chemical compounds. The field of chemical manufacture seems to be an especially weak point in American industry, and is a field in which at present there is a vast opportunity to expand by the intelligent use of our natural resources in conjunction with the favorable opportunity afforded by the conditions in Europe.

Strange as it may seem, American manufacturers are not hastening to take advantage of these opportunities. This is especially true of those who belong to the camp which has for its slogan "home market." It seems to be a peculiar psychological trait of the "home market" man that he does not even believe in a natural, healthy extension of his cherished "home market," and even in the face of tremendous incentive to develop new lines of industry. American business men have not always been willing to face the problems which confront them and solve them on their merits or demerits. Large amounts of money and time have been spent for lobbying in attempts to obtain artificial restrictions and other legislative benefits from the federal government. This time and money could be much more profitably spent upon studies to secure more efficient methods of production and distribution. Investigations made by the federal government have disclosed a surprising lack of knowledge, in many American industries, of the exact, or even approximate, cost of production of the units of manufacture. There are enormous losses in the distribution of goods when large discounts are allowed and when cancellations are tolerated, and when goods pass through too many hands in the progress from the producer to the consumer. If more attention were given to these and similar matters, economies could often be effected which would obviate the alleged necessity for additional governmental aid.

There are some people who actually advocate the development

of the "home market" to the exclusion of all other markets. This fact alone shows the short-sightedness of the policy of the "home market" group. But there are other meanings in the term "home market." The term "home market" implies a limited outlook. It means provincialism in business; it means self-complacency; it contemplates the building of a tariff wall to keep out all invaders, even if that wall at the same time prevents the extension of our own markets abroad; it means nation-wide inefficiency because it excludes that competition with other nations which forces upon the American industry nation-wide effectiveness; it implies a certain lack of progress and stagnation; and finally, it implies small scale production in every sense of the word. The "home market" idea takes no cognizance of the fact that American manufactures are increasing vastly more rapidly than the population, and that unless greater foreign outlets are found for our products a limit will be reached sooner or later, in the development of many of our manufacturing industries.

The other group of opportunities has to do with foreign trade. It is in those foreign fields where European nations have held their sway almost undisputed by the United States, that there are to be found the largest opportunities for the extension of American commerce and industry. For a number of years the American manufacturer has neglected this fruitful field of commercial endeavor and has left it to his European competitor. Now his European competitor is otherwise engaged and he has been called upon, in many cases against his desire, to do business with foreign countries which have formerly been purchasing from the European nations which are at

war.

It is not the intention of the writer to advise manufacturers and business men to give up "home markets" and to devote themselves to "foreign markets." Such advice would be absurd. The intention is to urge manufacturers to supply an even greater range of wants in the domestic market than they have ever heretofore supplied, and in addition, to urge them to recognize the opportunities in foreign markets and to go out and get the business which awaits them there. The "home market" should be expanded into the international market.

There is a considerable body of manufacturers and merchants in the United States who have adopted foreign trade as their aim in business.

They are fully awake to the possibilities of the tremen