Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/105

It is pretty safe to assume that German and other rival traders and investors are, broadly speaking, out for profit, and for profit only, and that they place their money or their goods wherever the prospect of gain is greatest and most secure.

There may be cases, however, where private business or scientific enterprise has made some discovery, or opened up some trade, which has a special political or military value. An instance would be that of the metal tungsten, used for hardening steel, the bulk of the sources of which are said to have been secured by Germans. Such cases, where they can be shown to exist, might legitimately be removed from the ordinary category of trade for our present discussion, and classed with those other trades in Germany or elsewhere which are admittedly aided and encouraged by the State, in part, for military considerations. So far as any State for "aggressive" purposes directs its "national economy" in such a way as to endanger our supplies either of military