Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
The world's a battle-ground for all
Go forth and conquer if you will
But if you win or if you fall,
Be each, please God, a gentleman.
With these ringing words, Colonel Henry L. Kincaide, at the 1913 Convention of the American Manufacturers Export Association, urged his fellow manufacturers into battle. The adversaries were England and Germany; the prize, world trade (Faulkner, 1924; Beard, 1934; Williams, 1959; LaFeber, 1963).
The speech came at an opportune time, because just three months later Congress was to pass the Federal Reserve Act and thus sanction a trade aid for which exporters had been lobbying for many years-the legal establishment of American branch banks in foreign countries (Chandler, 1911; Holmes, 1912; Bankers Magazine, 1913; Ring, 1913).