Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-21

it today Is less than per cent and the
trade amounts to more than 800 600 a
year. We allow Great Britain Germany,
France and England to have the lion :
share of the business, paying out annually
Si,W0.Oo0 more than We receive During
the first quarter of this year there was a
slight increase in the general volume of
trade. but this was caused by the increase
in the exports from the Argentine to the
United States and not by the increase of
the goods we sent there,
our ignorance Of the Argentine and its
possibilities IS astounding. There are many
people in the United States who do not
know where the Argentine is Some think
it is a part of BraziE Not long ago a
United States District attorney in a ceie-
brated case described how a ship could
go from New York to Rosario" in the
province of Uruguay. Brazil, and another
man recently wrote to a firm in BucnOs
Ayres. asking if it would help a person
to be able to speak Spanish if he wished
to make start there. When it is remem-
bered that Spanish is the universal Ian
guaSc OF the Argentine the fuoliShness of
the latter question will be appreciated.
Another piece of ignorance was that Of
a commercial traveller who came TO BuenOs
Ayres from Philadelphia to sell fencing
wire. He called upon Mr. d. W. Lowe,
the editor of the Buenos Ayres Herald,
and informed him that he had come to the
Argentine to introduce the barbed wire
fence. MI. Lowe replied:
here as there is in the United States
There are factories in France, Germany
and England. which have for years been
living off of this country by making it.
can show You tons of barbed wire in the
agricultural stores of BuenoS Ayres, ana
| venture you can buy it here on six
months credit at a lower price than YOU
expect to sell it at wholesale for cash y
That commercial traveller left for home on
the next steamer.
Barbed Wire and Galvanized Roofing.
And still the United States ought to haye
a great share of the iron trade of South
America. We have the cheapest coal and
the cheapest iron of the world and can
make hardware and all sorts of iron man.
ufactures cheaper than any other country
We are now exporting steel to Europe and
Asia and we should regard the enormous
market of South America.
No who has not been south of the
equator on this hemisphere can realize the
extent of the trade in galvanized iron. For
1000 miles aIOng the western coast OF
South America there is not enough wood
to supply Chicago with matches. Every
stick of building timber that is used comes
from the United States, and even as lar
down as Punta Arenas on the strait OF
Magellan you will find pine lumber from
Oregon and Maine The same is true of
the Argentine. This vast extent of coun-
try is therefore one of the worlds greatest
customers for galvanized iron.
You see ii everywhere in the nitrate fields
of Chile. There are iron hutS in the An
des iron warehouses on the pampaS or
Patagonia and there is a row of iron stores
running clear around the lower part of
South America. The iron is brought by
the steamer load from Europe and is sold
in bundles of sheets by the kilogram, or
about two and one-ffth pounds. Great
Britain gets the most of The trade. 1t
furnishes fifty times as much iron as we
do, and even little Belgium has four times
as much of such trade. In galvanized iron
piping we sell about 12o kilograms to the
Argentine annually, while Great Britain
proportion exists as to, cruffe iron, and 1t
IS the same in most kindsI of iron trade
We lead in ploWS, corn shelters and reap
erS and mowers, but Great Britain sells
mere threshing machines. and the trade OF
Belgium in galvanized wire for this market
Is five times as great as ours. we DO very
well in small tools, and also in many kinds
of machinery. Americans have reputa-
ton for making good things, though every
one says their stuff is, as a rule, too high
priced
The United States ought to furnish a
share of South Americas coal. There is
little good coal on the continent, and
especially on the east side of it. At pres
ent Great Britain sends $28,Ooe000 worth
of coal every year to the Argentine Re-
puhhc, Uruguay and Brazil. 1t ships its
coal up the Amazon 1000 miles and supplies
the southern coasts of the Caribbean sea.
This coal brings all the way from $40 to
$15 ton.
The kind used is Cardiff coal, which is
one or the best Goals of the world, but by
no means superior to some of the Goals of
the United States. The Pocahontas coal Of