-operative
work. Groups of exporters must organise and establish offices in Paris
and elsewhere in France. The reason for this is that the Frenchman
abhors the fly-by-night salesman: he likes to feel that the man with
whom he is trading has taken some sort of root in his midst.

With organisation must come knowledge. Why did the Germans succeed so
amazingly in France? Geographical proximity and the Frankfort Treaty
helped some, but the principal selling power he wielded was that he
lived with his clients, found out what they wanted, and gave it to them.
If a French farmer, for example, wanted a purple plough share fastened
to a yellow body, the German assumed that he knew what he wanted and
made it for him. The average American exporter, on the other hand, has
always assumed that the foreign customer had to take what was given to
him. For this reason we have failed in South America and for this
reason we will fail in France unless we change our methods. Knowledge is
selling power.

We must be prepared to give the French long credits, and if necessary,
finance French enterprises. Despite her immense gold hoardings, she may
feel an economic pinch after the war. We must also have sound and
organised French credit information.

Our salesmen must know the French language and sympathise with the
French temperament. Give the French buyer a ghost of a chance and he
will meet you more than half way. Unlike the stolid Englishman he is
plastic, adaptable and imaginative. Understanding is a large part of the
trade battle.

We must accumulate large stocks of American goods in France to indulge
the purchaser in his favourite occupation of long and elaborate choosing
and to meet demands for renewal. To ship these goods we must have our
own bottoms. Here, as elsewhere in the whole export outlook, is the old
need of a merchant marine.

But we will never realise our trade destiny in France without
reciprocity. We cannot sell without buying. France looks to us to take
part of the huge flood of goods that once went to Germany. We take some
of her wine: we must take more. We buy her silks and frocks: the
American market for them must now be widened. We depended upon Germany
for many of our toys: France expects the Anglo-Saxon nursery henceforth
to rattle with the mechanical devices which will provide meat and drink
for her maimed soldiers. And so on down a long list of commodities.

All this means that before the mood cools we must c