Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-09-23

! that our consuls in foreign cities have kept
| their eyes open to discover any openings
| for the introduction of American goods.
| The consular bulletins issued by the State
| Department are replete with suggestions
| that are of immense value to manufac-
turers. The only trouble is that these sug-
| gestions are not always considered, and
that the manufacturers who seeking
a market for their goods pay too little at
tertion to the idiosyncrasies of the people
whom they seeking to reach. A case
in point, which at first thought seems a
bit trivial. is really important as calling
attention to the lack of care and Judgment
so common with American manufacturers
and exporters. In referring recently to the
case of New England shoe manufacturer
who had made arrangements with an En-
glish firm to handle a considerable quantity
OF his goods the American consul at Bir-
mingham has the following to say:
1T is. however, strange and very annoy
ing to one interested in American trade
mat a manufacturer enterprlsing enough
TO establish agencies in London and also
in the provincial cities of Great Britain
should have given so little thought and
study to the needs of the market he is
seeking. He has three styles of shoes on
sale, viz, patent leather laced, calfskin
buttoned and tan laced. The patent leather
would perhaps go better if button shoe,
the black calfskin should certainly l
think. be laced, and all are far too light
soied for the unquestioned climatic de-
mands here. The one style of toe, also. is
of too extreme a point to suit English
taste
For a long time the lumbermen of the
northwest kept themselves out of the jap
aEese market a natural and immensely
prohtable market, solely because they in
sisted on sending their lumber cut into
the sizes and shapes that are most in de-
mand IN the United States They never
took into consideration the fact that the
japanese, with their peculiar ideas and
methods of building, wished their lumber
cut and dressed to suit their own particular
needs. So long as the American lumber
men persisted in sending what suited them
instead of what their customers required,
they failed to build up anything like a
profitable trade in Japan
In one of his letters to The Star from
South America Mr.. Frank Carpenter called
attention to the fact that American manu-
facturers failed even to box their goods in
a way to suit the customs and conveniences
OF the people among whom they were
seeking market. Because big crates can
De handled conveniently on American
freight cars they sent their goods in great
boxes, altogether too large for countries
where much of the transportation must
necessarily be done by stages or on mule
back. This put them at a tremendous dis
aNVantage at the start.
An English or a German manufacturer
would never have made such a mistake as
that. They always make it point to study
the peculiarities of the people whom they
wish for customers, and cater to them If
the people of Surinam or Corea want their
cotton goods of any particular color or
width the English manufacturer sends
them exactly the sort they desire There
nave been, on the contrary a number of
instances where American manufacturers
nave met with disaster, when they attempt
ed 10 break into some foreign market
solely because the goods they sent were
not precisely of the sort that was wanted