Business & Finance: At Charleston

To Charleston, S. C., last week came 1,500 members of the National Foreign Trade Council to the 13th annual convention. While their wives and families proved the famed hospitality of Charleston, visited the harbor islands and other local landmarks, the delegates buckled down to business at their headquarters in the Francis Marion hotel. There were three general and seven group sessions, all addressed by notable authorities on foreign trade.

James A. Farrell, president of the U. S. Steel Corp. and chairman of the Council, and Henry M. Robinson, president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles (he created the Dawes Plan of German reconstruction with Chairman Owen D. Young of General Electric and Vice President Charles G. Dawes), were the most notable speakers. They and the others covered the vast subject of exporting.

The most valuable aspect of the convention this year, those attending agreed, was the Trade Adviser Service. Some three score men and women, all experts on foreign trade details, held themselves ready for conference with any member on no matter what problem he might have bothering him. The advisers were kept busy.

To the South this convention was all-important, for that section feels itself already started on an industrial upsurge.