Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-12

let us say that 1t Is really not necessary
to imagine such geographical dislocation
for in very practical sense Latin America
does intervene; commercially and socially
the continent in question has been from the
beginning and is now conspicuously eastern
America, European in it's commercial and
social interests.
And first, as to it's commercial rela-
tions.
Europe rs Near as We Are.
The markets of Europe are practically
as near to all of the Latin American ports
on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as are
those of chief Importance in the United
States. The national bureau of statistics
points out that the sailing distance from
Pernambuco to New York is actually greater
than that to the cities of southern Europe
and but slightly less than to the principal
commercial cities of England and Germany.
So far as proximity is concerned, then, our
merchants have under present conditions no
advantage whatever over their European
competitors, and as the lines of steamships
are controlled almost exclusively in the in
teress of European capital we should eN-
pect an investigation of the subject to dis
close rather shocking state of affairs. Here
are some of the facts: Merchants in the
with South America frequently assert that
they can more advantageously send their
goods by way of Europe than direct to the
points OF delivery. The fact that the ex-
ports from the United States to Europe
greatly exceed the imports from Europe
makes it practicable for the vessels which
bring the rubber, coffee, hides and wool
of South America to the United States to load
readily at our ports with grain or provisions
for Europe, and there load again with goods
for the South American markets, thus max
ing the tour of the triangle, OF which the
line from New York to Liverpool forms
the base and the ports of Brazil and Ar
gentina the apex" And again: Marching
down the eastern coast of South America, We
find Brazil importing, in 1897, goods to the
value of over $1O5 600, of which the
United States supplied about IL per cent;
Uruguay and Paraguay, $220OO0 900, of which
our share was less than per cent; and Ar
gentina s95 600, 900, of which less than Z
per cent was from the United States A
tour of the Pacific coast shows importations
into Chill of $4,000, 900; Peru, $500 600;
Bolivia, S11 900 000 and Ecuador, 81, ,000, 000
the proportion from the United States aver
aging about 10 per cent. The northern coast
of South America, fronting on the Carib-
bean sea- imports goods to the value OF $780,
100000, OF which we supply an average Of
25 per cent; the eastern coast, fronting upon
the Atlantic, 1922 100000 and the Pacific
coast $51 600, COO, of which our proportion Is
In each case about 10 per cent" As a rather
startling illustration of the effect OF the
commercial triangle, which not only places
Latin America between Europe and the
United States. but also interposes Europe,
Il a
seaports to those of our sister republics,
the fact may be noted that from the coun-
tries of South America fronting upon the
Atlantic and Pacific, the United States in
1897. purchased goods valued at $SS, ,4OS, ,1l9,
while her sales to them in that year were
but s2i, ,4SO0l3. or less than one third OF
her purchases from them" Thus the actual
achievements of commerce outstrips our
fancy, and in practical effect juggles with
the relative positions of three continents,
while the writer felt called upon to apollo
gize for barely imagining a change in the
position of one!
Americans We do Not Know.
Socially, this European propinquty is even
more marked among the Latin Americans,
and for their language, literature, art.
music, fashions and whatever decorates or
amuses, they have held so nearly to Spain,
France and Italy that in all these matters We
have had the habit of thinking OF them as
especially remote from ourselves-southeast-
ern Americans with a vengeance. We may
as we'll confess that. as nation, We are
profoundly ignorant of the characteristics of
the 65, 100000 of people who live beyond our
southern boundaries II would be absurd to
say, either, that we like them or that We do
not like them We as a nation, do not
know Nothlng could be more Interesting in
itself. however-and OF course for the com
plete success of the Panamerican exposition
few things are more essential than a study
OF their attitude toward us at the present
time. And in the first place we may as well
make up our minds that the obvious method
OF questioning them on this head will not
serve our purpose at all.
The wellbred Latin Americans to whom
Nc would naturally apply for Information are