The growth of those figures in their largest aspect is due to organized private effort, the methods and operations of which are a sealed book to the government official or the general public, and which unfortunately have shared in the recent and sweeping condemnation of the business methods of all big corporations. There has been no sifting of the wheat from the chaff, the good from the evil, with most deplorable results, for which both public and corporations are to blame. The natural result has been that in attempting to regulate the home activities of “big business” their foreign activities have been hindered and even checked. Lost ground in foreign directions is more difficult to regain than at home, for certain artificial and natural barriers always exist, which favor home markets, while foreign trade meets well-equipped rivals at least on equal terms, and often with a handicap. In the year 1913 the people of the United States are entering upon a radical change in the national attitude toward domestic and foreign commerce. There is a partial reversal of policy toward home industry; there is also an important experiment afoot in diplomacy. It is too early to say just how radical these changes will be in the final reckoning, or what may be the outcome. It is quite possible that increased freedom of trade may bring good results at home; and if Congress recognizes the need of a commercial diplomacy auxiliary to that of the litterateur, the reformer, the peace-advocate, the missionary, and the general uplifter of mankind, and the administration provides competent, permanent, and resident commercial diplomats or attachés to all important American missions, a threatened disadvantage may be turned into a victory. At present, however, American foreign trade is the foot-ball of national politics. Private enterprise, with its able American representatives abroad, is the only real guard against serious damage possessed by this great asset of the nation. The advance of American foreign commerce may be likened to a more or less friendly conflict with an allied army of foreign competitors. This is specially true of American trade, for it is generally a new-comer, and is regarded with dislike and antagonism to such an extent as to induce combinations of rivals to resist its advance.