MOVIES AND TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1922, Page 10

MOVIES AND TRADE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SAX FRANCISCO, March 31. The National Association of Manu-1 facturers of America have just announced from New "iork iiie inauguration of an effort to have motion pictures used to further a systematic i method of trade distribution, that.not! only will cover the country, but reach j into other lands a3 well. All the i nation's industries have been asked to] consider the scheme, which, it is be-1 licved, will greatly increase commerce. | •Tohn E. Kdgerton, president of the j association, has called a conference at Washington of all manufacturers wlioj are interested, ami he says there is immediate necessity for the United I States to develop its industrial and I sales pictures to the highest point in! order to keep abreast of other coun- j tries in the war for commerce. Arner-1 ica's business having almost disappeared overseas. '"Other countries. having flooded' America with goods produced at, v i figure, far below anything we could dream of," he says, "are now going into the other section* of the world: preaching the superiority.of their goods and

using the motion pictures as one. of the most effective salesmen. American goods are bound to suffer, and we must not clobc our eyes to this situation. AYe must go out after this business as we would for domestic busine6S, and one Jof our most valuable means will be tht J industrial motion picture. Other countries are starting their motion pictures' sales campaign in a very vigorous way, and we certainly Bhould not stay behind i any longer." I Americans have noted that manufacj turer.s and wholesalers of Xew Zealand and Australia have recently sent a spe- ! cial commissioner over to the United j States with a similar object in-view, ] :md only a few weeks a,go Commissioner ! Laurie appeared before the foreign seeI tion of the San Francisco Chamber of j Commerce, and an excellent series of ; motion pictures were projected on the screen at the Palace Hotel, depicting I the leading industries of Australia and New Zealand. The wide diversitiy of I the products of the Antipodes somewhat i surprised American business men, and J the exhibition of the pictures not only I proved a capital advertisement of Ausj tralia and New Zealand but laid the ] foundation for future business between ! Americans and Antipodean?. Evidently i the American business men are alive to the importance of the cinema as a method of boosting American goods, and have decided to imitate the example shown by Australians.