The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-21


rangement between this country and
Latin America, which will make cur dol
lars worth 100 cents each in any of the
sister republics. An international bank Is
to be established, under direct control of
all the governments concerned, which will
organize Q complete mechanism of ex-
change. Credit system will be set up also,
that will enable merchants there and here
to buy OF one another on REASONABLE time.
and, with the new departure that is to
bring about the transfer of commerce with
those nations from Europe to the United
States, Great Britain will cease to control
money affairs IN that part of the world.
1t has been said that everything pro-
duced in this country is something that is
wanted in South and Central America.
Among the exports sent thither now are !:
Asbestos, axle-grease, airguns, backing,
butter, bread, bellows, beans. beer, bicy-
cles, baby carriages, burial cases, bustles,
beeswax, buttons, birthstone, bells, bungs,
bathtubs. candles, corks, carwheels, cod
fish, cards, cuspidors, candy. corsets,
cages, chromos, feather-dusters, firecrack-
ers, empty hogsheads, ink, incubators,
popcorn, sausages, soup paste, salad dress
Ing ana sarsaparilla. In return we get
chemicals, drugs, dyes, quinine, cocoa,
coffee, fruits, nuts, hides, India rubber,
sugar and tobacco. Unfortunately United
states merchants have paid no at
tention TO finding out what are the
especial tastes and demands of these peo-
pie OF the southland, and their merchants
complain that ours insist upon trying to
sell them the goods made for domestic
buyers here. 1T is a great mistake, -
they say, ito imagine that it is possible to
create tastes in South America for the reg
ular line of North American products. If
vynsa mil
knives, and for plain cottons variegated
prints, you Hill not succeed in persuading
us to purchase your goods" This error,
however, manufacturers and exporters in
New York, Chicago and other big cities
are taking steps to rectify by sending
agents to the Southern republics for the
purpose of learning accurately what they
want. Before long they will be invaded by
an army OF enterprising drummers, with
sample-cases in hand Only the lack of
ordinary business energy is responsible for
the fact that in 1890 Uncle Sam sold Latin
America only Is per cent. of what it
bought abroad and paid for 35 per cent. of
amounting in the last twenty years to
-, 000, 600, 900 in gold. these neighbors have
spent not here but in Europe for goods
which we make of better quality.
Although, for climatic reasons, bread
stuffs cannot be successfully produced in
the greater part of South America, the
vast pampas of the Argentine Republic
afford one of the finest wheat-growing re-
gipns in the world. The same thing may
bAsaid of Chile and Uruguay, which are
being developed agriculturally by Italian
immigrants. These three countries are
likely soon to compete most formidably
with the United States in the wheat mar
kets of Europe, and there is every pros
pect that they will shortly underbid US
with sheep and cattle. Already refriger-
ator ships are sailing from the Rio de la
Plata with cargoes of dressed beef and
mutton bound for England and Germany,
and packing-houses are being erected on
an extensive scale, while millions of
pounds of jerked beef are prepared for ex-
port annually. AT present the River Plata
valley is more. to. be feared as a
visions than India, Russia or
Australia. Although in pork and dairy
products it could never make much of a
showing, because cream will not rise and
hogs cannot be fattened, the possibilities
| of this wonderful territory may be said to
| area Is greater than that of the Mississippi
valley, and its natural transportation
facilities are so great that vessels for
Europe can literally enter the wheat fields
and ranches. The river Platte offers a
more extensive system of unobstructed
navigation than any other stream in the
world, and, with the exception of the
Amazon alone, il pours more water into
the ocean. 1t affords a greater number of
miles of navigable water than all the
rivers of Europe combined, and more
than does the Mississippi together
with its tributaries. The tide from
the Atlantic ocean reaches $50
nd ha
| greatest steamships can find sufficient
| draught for their accommodation ] 900
| miles from the mouth. Vessels of twenty
feet draught can go 200 miles into the in
terror. The Argentine, Brazil, Chile and
Uruguay are experimenting the water
/ ways with an extensive railway system,
| and in this respect will soon be as we'll
| equipped for commerce as Kansas or Col
| orado. They can place wheat on Liverpool
/ steamers at lower price than il can be
| loaded for upon lake steamers at Duluth,
| and they can stow away carcasses of beef
| and mutton in refrigerator ships more
| cheaply than Western ranchmen can
| land livestock at Chicago or Kansas
| City. European capital has been di-
verted to the Argentine and Uruguay for
| the simple reason that the same area of
| pasturage and an equal number of cattle
| can be bought there for one-half the
| money Millions of foreign dollars are
\ u
| the Englishmen usually taking cattle and
| the Irish and Scotch sheep. There are now
| in the River Plata country ninety-six
| sheep, eighteen cattle and twenty-four
| horses for each inhabitant. whereas there
| are only eighty sheep. seventy cattle and
| twenty horses for each 100 inhahitants of the
| United States. One scheme that is likely
| to be carried out before many years is for
| gigantic interoontinental railway to con-
| meet North and South America and pro-
| vide for the enormous freight traffic which
would pass over such line, as well as for
| passenger transportation.
The cultivation of the banana, though
new industry in South America, has
already grown TO great and most profitable
proportions. It was only started eight
years ago for purposes of export. Although
twenty-five or thirty varieties of the fruit
are found there, it is very lit
tie used for eating purposes
by the people, who consider il
banana is the most productive of ell the
fruits of the earth. being forty-four times
as product Ee as potatoes and 1871 times as
ously. and takes care of itself Ii has been
said that on this account the negroes of
tropical Africa will never be civilized, be-
cause they cannot be made TO work so
long as the banana viii supply them with
food without labor.
Venezuela is wonderful country. about
three times as big as France, with a coast
1900 miles long. indented by five CULTS and
thirty-two ports, some of which would
give anchorage to the combined fleets of