The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-22

Ceived their money. The order was Tor
more than $4,000 worth of stun year, with
the prospect Of a great increase"
AMERICAN IGNORANCE.
It is due to actions like those mentioned
b. my commercial friend and TO our gen.
eral ignorance of the Argentine that we
only get a smell OF its trade. our share of
IL to-day is less than per cent, and the
trade amounts to more than S2o0. 100000
year. we allow Great Britain, Germany,
France and England to have the lions share
Of the business. paying out annually 100000
more than we receive. During the first
quarter Of this year there was slight in
crease in the general volume of trade, but
this was caused by the increase in the ex-
ports 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 1t is a
part OF Brazil. Not long ago a United
States district attorney in a celebrated case
described how a ship could go from New
York to Rosario, in the province of Uru-
quay, Brazil and another man recently
wrote to a firm in Buenos Ayres, asking If
Il would help person to be able to speak
Spanish If he wished to make start there.
When it is remembered that Spanish is the
universal language of the Argentine the
foolishnes of the latter question Will be APP
preciated
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
sd %F,o he 10 Z he fc
introduce the barbed wire fence. Mr.. Lowe
why man. there is as much barbed wire
here as there is in the United States.
There are factories in France, Germany
and England, which have for years been
living eff Of this country by making it. /
can show you tons of barbed wire in the
agricultural stores of Buenos Ayres, and
! venture you can buy it here on six months
credit at a lower price than you expect too
sell It at wholesale for cash. That CONNER
cial traveller left for home on the next
steamer.
WIRE AND ROOFING.
And still the United States ought TO have
q 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 one who has not been south of the
equator on this hemisphere can realize the
extent of the trade in galvanized iron. For
2000 miles along 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 far down as
Punta Arenas, on the Strait of Magellan.
you viii find pine lumber from Oregon and
Maine The same is true of the Argentine.
This vast extent of country is therefore
one of the worlds greatest customers for
galvanized iron.
You see it everywhere in the nitrate fields
of Chile. There are iron huts in the An
des. iron warehouses on the pampas of Pat
agonia, 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-fifth pounds. Great Brit
ain 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 100 Kilograms to the Argentine
annually. while Great Britain sells more
than a million. An equally large proportion
exists as to crude iron, and it is the same
in most kinds of iron trade. We lead in
plows, corn shelters and reapers and now
ers, but Great Britain sells more thrashng
machines, and the trade of Belgium in gal
vanized wire for this market is five times
as great as ours. We do very we'll in small
tools. and also in many kinds of machinery.
Americans have a reputation for making
good things, though every one says their
stuff is, a rule, too high priced.
OUR COAL IN SOUTH AMERICA
The United States ought to furnish a
share of South Americas coal There is
little good coal on the continent, and es-
peciaIly on the east side of it. At pres
ent Great Britain sends $2OOOO,OOO worth
OF coal every year to the Argentine Re
public, Uruguay and Brazil. It ships its
coal up the Amazon 2,000 miles and supplies
the southern coasts Of the Caribbean sea.
This coal brings all the way from $40 to
SIS a ton.
The kind used Is Cardiff coal, which is
one of the best Goals of the world but by
no means superior to some of the Goals of
the United States. The Pocahontas coal of
Virginia has been tested with it and came
out ahead. At present the chief company
AtaL Is WOIklHE the south American lTaue
IS the one which owns the Pocahontas
mines. For the past three years one Of
their travelling men. who speaks Spanish
and Portuguese fiuently, has been going
about South America and has succeeded in
introducing the coal into Rio, Buenos
Ayres, Montevideo and other large ports
] am told that this company expects event
ually to have regular line of coal and
cargo steamers for the South American
trade. Such steamers would carry coal to
South America and bring back hides, wool
and coffee to the United States. At pres
ent the freight rates on Cardiff coal arc
about 80 cents per ton lower than the rates
paid to the steamers carrying American
coal. Such a steamship line would pay and
would largely conduce to the building up OF
trade between the United States and South
America.
HIDES, WOOL. STREET RAILROADS.
Indeed, all the chief industries of the
country offer chances for American invest
ment. If our capitalists will send good men
TO manage the business. Our business
brains are equal TO those Of any of the for
eigners who are now operating in the Ar
gentine. We can, if we will. have our
share Of the profits.
This is especially so in the matter of hides