The Panama Pacific International Exposition 1915

MANUFACTURES AND VARIED INDUSTRIES Though the total value of production in manufacture is thus greater than that of any other line, it is believed the number of people engaged in, and supported by it, is less than in agriculture. The world of trade is inexorably ruled by supply and demand. But these do not always respond directly to each other. Thus, consumption arising from an entirely irrelevant cause may influence supply. Single events, also, affecting trade routes, may stimulate production in new areas and divert supply to new regions. To the great industry, in mod- ern times, the earth is a fair field, and its map the only limit to a plan of campaign. For this reason nations and the larger industries view with analytical interest the opening of the Panama Canal and the holding of the Panama-Pacific In- ternational Exposition. For whatever be the effect the Canal may have upon commerce, that effect is accelerated by any combined show- ing of the relative strength of the commercial countries and the preparedness and excellence of the leading industries and their individual members. Trade routes open new areas of production. Zones of production change because the areas of consumption change. The industrial awakening that fol- lows the more frequent commercial interchange between the nations creates new wants, which trade is eager to supply. The shortening of the routes of trade and the international advertisement given to products of all kinds by their univer- sal display is a tremendous factor in national and individual commercial success. These facts are almost universally recognized, and they should lead manufacturers, first, to a consideration of world-trade conditions; and, second, to a study of their increased opportunities and the elements which contribute to these opportunities. In the settling processes of competition, profitable ex- change, the giving of one surplus for another, although it may lead in perfected agriculture and expensive manufac- ture, the United States is the best country in which to hold an international exposition for the display of the natural re- sources, the objects, articles, products and accomplishments [ 11 ]