The steel maker of the United States, on the other hand, has always had, except in times of severe depression, an excellent market at home, one ready to hand and able to absorb all the steel he turned out. The country had been building up and expanding. Steel has been and is still needed for railroads, skyscrapers, bridges, factory buildings, agricultural machinery, automobiles, and a thousand and one other purposes. The result of this has been that our manufacturers have had no particular desire in normal times to seek foreign business with its attendant risks and expenses and the long-term credit it demands. They were, until recent years, content to leave the foreign markets to European exploitation and only to enter these markets when dull business at home forced them to seek new outlets for their product. In the earlier days of the industry American steel, at such periods, was thrown on foreign markets at prices often below cost of production, the loss being considered preferable to unemployment at home or the disruption of company organizations which a continuous decline in sales would have brought about. This process was commonly known as “dumping,” and it was calculated to earn the bitter hostility of foreign competitors who saw their carefully cultivated markets taken away from them by cut-throat competition. A wave of returning prosperity at home would cause indifference to, and independence of, foreign trade on the part of our steel producers, an attitude that naturally did not create good will among foreign consumers. One of the results of this state of affairs was uneven and sporadic exports; another was that American steel had no friends abroad. It has often been charged against our manufacturers that, although professing to be anxious to sell their goods in all markets, they were unwilling to meet the requirements of the foreign buyer, taking the “if they don’t like our goods, let them go elsewhere” attitude. Fortunately, this is not nearly so much the case to-day as it was a few brief years ago, but this disposition is still visible in many quarters. And it gives the European competitor, who goes on the principle that the buyer is always in the right, an incalculable advantage. The basis for this attitude on the part of our manufacturers lies in his assurance of vast home markets. His competitor abroad, having perforce to sell half or more of his output in other than home markets, naturally works to find out the needs of possible buyers everywhere, and sets out to meet these needs. And he gets the business.