Birmingham state herald., 1895-10-12
OUR soUTaERN NE1GHBoRs.,

The suggestion that steamer be put on between New Orleans or Mobile and Venezuela to bring our South American neighbors to the Atlanta Exposition ought to be acted upon at once. It would no doubt prove success and would be followed by a permanent commercial line
 It is astonishing what little attention is paid by us to the countries which lie at our very doors. Here at the Universi- ty of Alabama we find our young men in strutced in the dead languages, which they will probably never look at again after getting their degrees, and in such living languages as German and French, which are practically valueless to busi- ness men at the South, but they receive no instruction in Spanish, which is spoken by all the neighboring republics among whom our commerce should be extended and our young men should go out as commercial travellers
 This inattention to our young neigh boring countries Is typical. In almost every aspect we have kept our eyes last ened on Europe and have turned our backs upon the most profitable fields for our commerce. Happily during the past few years there has been change for the better. Our railroads with Mex ico, our growing fruit trade and our friendly attitude with Venezuela have made us a host of friends in those re- pubics. More has been written and published in the United States concern ing the countries South of us during the last four years than in quarter Of a century previous, and the results of this stimulated interest are shown in heavier mails, in the tables of commercial sta tistics, in the increased passenger traffic upon the few lines of steamships that stagger under burdensome disadvan- tages, but manage to maintain infre- quent communication, and in the organ ization by the merchants of New York city of a commercial association for the expansion of our trade in Spanish Amer ica. Our merchants are sending drum mers into the Southern continent, our manufacturers are studying the require ments of it's markets and endeavoring to comply with them, and the members of our Congress have commenced to discuss, if they have not enacted, laws that will relieve the restrictions of trade.
 All this has come from agitation. It is lhc itSait LII oihcAtlu6 tiic PuphC elltSh- ton in direction to which it had not been turned for many years before. Tourists havs begun to visit Central and South America, where they have never gone before, and each returning traveller brings back intelligence that tempts oth- CTS to follow in his footsteps. Our mer- chants must have the same facilities that their foreign competitors enjoy to meet them upon an equal footing. It cannot be expected that the people of Latin America will furnish us opportunities that are furnished them by European capital and enterprise. They have al- ready sufficient lines of communication with markets on the other side of the At lantic, where their wants are now sup piled. They lack nothing in commer- cial advantages. They have profitable markets for their products and adequate means of reaching them, which have been established by their customers. They are not seeking our trade but we are seeking theirs, and to secure it we must employ the same methods that oth- CT nations have used The first of these methods is to offer facilities for our neighbors to visit the Atlanta exposition by even such temporary line as is pro- posed by Colonel Avery of Georgia. But the best and most lasting method is to add the Spanish language to our univer- sity curriculum.