Why was she not satisfied? What more did she want? There was nothing in
the world of peace that she did not already have and have in abundance.
We boast of the extraordinary pace of American advancement. We show with
pride the statistics of the increase of our industries and of the
population of our cities. Well, those statistics did not match the
recent statistics of Germany. Her old cities took on youth and grew
faster than any American cities ever grew. Her old industries opened
their eyes and saw a new world and went out for its conquest. And yet
the authorities of Germany were not satisfied.
You have one part of the answer to the question why she was not
satisfied in her methods of competition. There is no important industry
in Germany upon which the Government has not laid its hands, to direct
it and, when necessity arose, control it; and you have only to ask any
man whom you meet who is familiar with the conditions that prevailed
before the war in the matter of national competition to find out the
methods of competition which the German manufacturers and exporters used
under the patronage and support of the Government of Germany. You will
find that they were the same sorts of competition that we have tried to
prevent by law within our own borders. If they could not sell their
goods cheaper than we could sell ours at a profit to themselves they
could get a subsidy from the Government which made it possible to sell
them cheaper anyhow, and the conditions of competition were thus
controlled in large measure by the German Government itself.