film presented by the 20th century fund. the film features a foreign trade skeptic who sets out to answer his concerns by interviewing workers, a scholar, and industrialists in locations abroad and across the u.s.. this is about 20 minutes. ♪ [machines running]

[train noises] ♪ >> what do you know? my name was not on the titles and i am the guy who is supposed to get the subject rolling. a big subject, the usa and trade. where should we began? steel and oil. that is a pretty good start already. sending a freight along with that stuff is not the most

comfortable way to see the country, but we will learn are more by taking a streamliner. >> [indiscernible] ♪ >> that was quite a trip. i think we are going overseas. now what about this foreign trade? i have heard a lot of people asking does it do us any good,

or is it just giving to the rest of the world? >> hey, what you doing here? >> we are trying to find out about foreign trade, and what is the point of it all? >> you have come to the right place. >> we take stuff to where they need it. it is going to 25 different countries. it wasn't for the railroad, they would not have any cargo. >> we get the general idea, but we would like to move around a bit and ask someone else around foreign trade. maybe we can speed to some of the people abroad who built that stuff on the flat cars. perhaps there is someone on this train who can help us. he seems interested. excuse me, what is that foreign stuff doing here? are the united nations moving in? >> do you know the united

theou don't approve of united nations people, sir? >> i couldn't help overhearing your remarks. that foreigner thing now, that bothers me. back in 1940, when we took 18 bonds, you do not think of us as those foreigners then. [speaking french] >> i beg your pardon, but not all of us understand french. >> in the war, i guided bombers. and now we need a material to keep them going again. >> exactly. >> and we had to call in a welding expert to fix her up a bit. she probably will not stay fixed.

we have to keep her all together until that new one outside of your dining car window gets here . you couldn't ask your driver to hurry it up a bit, could you? >> take it easy, max. >> if you know anything about the scenes -- machines, you would know it is a crime to turn down work on a machine like that. it needs new equipment. >> thanks, i really appreciate it. >> we have to pay for it. and the only way we can get the money is to sell some of our stuff to do. how are you americans going to feel when our boots turned up in your country? >> that doesn't sound so good to me.

i mean, that guy needs a new machine, but i do not want to see some american lose his job. >> yes, but we have to import too. we have to sell goods. [speaking french] >> wait a minute. i am not going to be the fall guy on this deal. >> looks like we have to find out where we are. some of our friends abroad think we should send abroad the goods we need, but some of our friends at home are afraid the goods are going to compete with our own products. i think we have heard the arguments before. time we call someone and to give us the facts. this is dr. winfield. he is an economist with a lot of practical experience in foreign affairs. do you think you can help straighten this out on this, dr.? >> you're right, all this did happen before. it has been well documented.

shall be take a look at the record? here are the figures for 1920. in that year, we have something a little more exciting. >> i have a film here that will make things much clearer. >> for 10 years after the first world war, there was a great demand for our products all over the world. this scramble for world markets resulted in shortsighted thinking. some people reasoned that all we had to do was get our products on ships and it was all guaranteed. they forgot a lot of this business was done on credit. we wanted our billion dollars, and the only way the other fellow was to get dollars was to sell us something or send us gold. from our point of view, everything was rosy, but from the other fella's point of view,

entirelyoked different. because our tarriff kicked in, other nations had to set us -- ship us gold, but we were getting more than we could possibly use. in fact, we ended up with two thirds of the world monetary supplies. >> i don't get it. we dug it out of a hole in africa, now we are putting it in a hole in kentucky. >> that's just it. nobody really got it. only the countries that had gold could buy freely from us. the others had to take the goods elsewhere. foreign trade dried up and this extension waited the worldwide depression. >> hey now, don't blame our depression on the lack of foreign trade.

everybody knows that our foreign trade has always amounted to less than 10% of our total business. if you ask our friend paul hoffman, he will back me up. >> i am afraid you're wrong. the crippling of foreign trade was not the only factor of depression, but it was an important one. that 10%, that is an overall figure. in many industries, that figure runs much higher, and that extra production for exports is a very vital factor. it not only means more jobs, but also means lower cost for lower prices for the whole market as well as the export market. >> if he says it's good it must be ok. wait a minute. what about all this manufacturing? is that setting our competitors up in business?

>> we ship of a lot of machinery to south america. what are they think about it? >> this worries me. pretty soon, your people are going to have so many factory they will not be buying from us anymore. all of these ships bringing in manufacturing equipment will be making half of their trips to sell to us. see those fellas over there? they're working for $.80 a day. the wages in our factories are much higher. do you think our people will want more cars, figures -- refrigerators, and radios? >> all right, but won't you make everything you need in the future? >> we can never compete in the production industry. the more industrialized we become, the more our people will be able to buy. i will be wishing you and your

ship mary bon voyage. >> these people do not have dollars to pay us with. why should we spend out of the country without getting something useful in return? >> anything useful? i have been trying to explain this. [train horn] you can't convince that guy by talking to him. why don't you find out more that shipment is going? we are not going to be here all-night you know. >> know. that was the quickest trip to cleveland i ever made. i hope you mind the intrusion, but are you expecting a shipment from switzerland? >> is it here? where? saw it on asy, we car 800 miles away. why do you have to get it from switzerland? don't we make everything from we went -- in cleveland? >> i'm afraid not.

not many people that realize it, but a lot of our specialized equipment is made in europe. some of our largest, most special, and most smallest. these chains, you will not find them made in america. the ones this size come from abroad. you look surprised. i bet your 10-year-old son could list a lot more stuff we need than you could at his age. hey, where are you going? >> to settle something. >> remove that coffee. >> it is from brazil and the gentleman does not approve of foreign products. what is this, a silk neck tie?

away with it. are you away are the that watch on your wrist came from switzerland? and that suit? i understand your embarrassment, but off with it. [laughter] >> you certainly did a job on him. >> he had it coming to him. there is something that bothers me. i know other folks eat our stuff stuff, and i suppose we need some of theirs. but i do not know what happens when other folks growth -- grow stuff cheaper than i can grow it. i want to be protected somehow. >> if i cannot be selling my products in your country, how can i buy your machinery?

>> i don't want anyone to suffer, but how can i compete with someone who is only half the wages i get? how is that fair? >> where would we be if we started yelling about protective terrorists or your part of the country? it does not make sense. -- protective tarriffs for your part of the country. how is that fair. that does not make sense. ♪

>> that is pretty good. it is like us guys making automobiles. in england, the same assembly-line job pays about half what we get, but their cars cost twice as much. and i still don't know where that leaves me. >> let's let some sunlight in on our friends problem. and let's get some fresh air for ourselves. [trains] >> you remember those walls. those tarriff walls that some folks in farms and factories would like to keep along here. the protective industries are not the ones that contribute

most to our protective american standard of living. >> it is not time you got around to me. i am the consumer, the one who has to pay for all of this protection. perhaps you can explain that. >> we are paying billions of dollars year for goods be produced more efficiently and cheaply abroad. those are the things we should make up our minds to import and concentrate our own efforts on agricultural and industrial products we can turn out more efficiently then anyone else.

there is a better chance for kids in an industry that stands on its own feet and is not propped up by subsidies, and that goes for agriculture as well. >> [speaking french] >> i think there is a roughly this. we have now, with a platform that can flesh out the international trade wars. we have come a pretty long way from the time when countries have altered their trade

agreements with no regard for the well-being of their neighbors. in fact, it seems to me that the peace and welfare of our world today will depend largely on the measure of their success. that must be our train. >> island that's to get to a clear track. there are a couple of things i wanted to say before i go. you know, we cannot dump all of our problems and forget about them. it seems to me that if we want to keep the wheels turning, we have to see that everybody everywhere and dust can get a fair chance to stay in business. to.keep a job like we want this foreign trade, it is like a round-trip.

it works best when the flow is coming and going. doesn't that make sense? [train horn] ♪ >> you are watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. at lycos on facebook at c-span history. >> next on american history tv, historians and authors discuss the legacy of reconstruction. they speculate on abraham lincoln's lands for the post-civil war period had he not been assassinated and discuss the effectiveness of programs put forward by his successors,

president's johnson and grant. they also discussed the u.s. supreme court during reconstruction and draw parallels between the time and the civil rights movement today. the new york historical society hosted this 90 minute event. [applause] >> well, good morning, everyone. welcome. thank you for coming out on a rare, warm winter morning in new york. i am delighted to be with my friends and colleagues. there are no three people in the united states who are, who know more about this subject, have been more insightful about it, have produced more about it and articulate its lingering issues and controversies for the benefit of all of us, indeed,